China plays an important role in ensuring security of energy, ecology and food, and its participation in the Group of Eight (G8) summit will promote the prestige of this mechanism, a leading Russia expert told Xinhua on Tuesday.

The Chinese economy has been growing rapidly in recent years, turning into one of the factors that move the world economy forward, said Alexei Arbatov, head of the Center for International Security of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

With its global rankings in terms of gross domestic product, international influence and international investment keeping rising, China's involvement is beneficial to the establishment of prestige of the G8 summit, he said.

The G8, which lacks the membership of large developing countries, is incomplete, Arbatov said. The invitation for China to take part in the summit shows that the G8 is willing to maintain and develop its cooperation with China, which will help tackle challenges brought by globalization, he added.

The three-day summit of the G8 is being held in the northern Japanese resort of Toyako. Climate change, the world economy and African development have been chosen as the main topics of the discussions. Chinese President Hu Jintao is among 14 non-member leaders attending the summit.

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2008)