The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Beijing

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations wants to strengthen its partnership with a rising China, during visit to Beijing on Wednesday focused on global challenges such as food security and soaring energy prices.

In opening remarks to their meeting, Ban told Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi that China, one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security council, was regarded as a "strong partner" of the global body.

"The purpose of my visit here is to ask even more stronger partnership and more participation from your country," Ban said before reporters were ushered from the room. The secretary general was due to meet later in the day with Premier Wen Jiabao and president and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao. Yang thanked Ban for the U.N.'s assistance in responding to the earthquake in China's Sichuan province that killed almost 70,000 people and left five million homeless.