European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday the European Union (EU) would strive to triple the number of exchange students with China by 2018.

"In our bilateral relations, I would welcome seeing a rapid increase in people-to-people contacts and student exchanges over the coming five years. We need to know and understand each other much better," Barroso said ahead of a summit with China next week.

"We should make every effort to increase the number of student and youth visits in both directions, with the aim of tripling the number by 2018," he said in a statement.

The number of exchange students between China and the EU countries has reached 200,000. To woo more students from the EU, China launched a five-year China-EU student exchange scholarship program in 2007.

The China-EU summit, to be held on Monday in Nanjing, China's eastern Jiangsu province, is the highest-level dialogue mechanism between the two sides.

The EU will be represented by Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, accompanied by EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

The summit will address the financial and economic crisis, the bilateral relationship and climate change as well as international issues, such as non-proliferation, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, according to the EU.

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