Leaders from the world's five emerging economies gathered in south China's beach resort of Sanya for the BRICS summit on Thursday.

The meeting will be chaired by Chinese President Hu Jintao and attended by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma.

The BRICS Leaders Meeting will send a signal of confidence, solidarity and cooperation to the international community, China's Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Hailong told reporters this month.

China hopes BRICS countries can strengthen coordination and mutual cooperation on reform of the international currency system, commodity price fluctuations, climate change and sustainable development, Wu said.

A document expected to be released after the summit will sum up BRICS countries' consensus on the global economy, international financial issues and developmental affairs.

The five leaders are expected to meet the media on Thursday and President Hu is scheduled to deliver a speech to elaborate on China's views on the current global economic situation and other major issues.

All the four foreign leaders have arrived in Sanya. Hu held talks with Medvedev, Singh and Zuma on Wednesday respectively. Hu met with Brazilian President Rousseff during her stay in Beijing on Tuesday.

The term of BRIC was first coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neil in 2001 to group four fast-growing economies -- Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The countries now seek to use the idea to forge a platform for communication and cooperation. In 2009, Russia hosted the first summit of BRIC state leaders and the second such gathering took place in Brazil last year.

South Africa was invited to join the grouping in late 2010.

The five countries' population made up 42 percent of the world's total and their combined gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for 18 percent of the global GDP in 2010. Their trade volume took up 15 percent of the world's total last year.

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