Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) shakes hands with his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy during their meeting in Cannes, France, Nov. 2, 2011. Hu Jintao was here to attend a Group of Twenty (G20) summit. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

CANNES, France, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao met here Wednesday his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy on bilateral ties and other issues of common concern, including the Group of 20 summit scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

Hu pointed out that since the recovery of global economy is now facing with quite a few instable and uncertain factors, the international community is holding great expectations for the G20 Summit in Cannes.

"The Chinese side actively supports the French side to host the summit," Hu said, emphasizing that the Group of 20 should continue to uphold the spirit of cooperation and send a clear and definite signal of securing growth and promoting stability to the international community through this summit.

Hu expressed the hope that all relevant parties should join effort to make the Cannes summit a conference of solidarity, cooperation and win-win.

Sarkozy expressed appreciation on the efforts China has made to prepare for the G20 summit. He said the French side is ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the Chinese side and work with all other parties to push for positive results of the summit.

Hu said Europe is the largest economy in the world, and there will be no recovery of global economy without the recovery of European economy. He pointed out that the package deal that the European Union (EU) struck lately demonstrates its will and determination to resolve Europe`s debt problem. He expressed the wish that the implementation of the package would help overcome the difficulties faced by Europe and be conducive to the recovery and growth of European economy.

"It has to be depended mainly on Europe to resolve the European debt problem," Hu said.

"We believe that Europe has all the wisdom and capability to resolve the debt problem," he added.

Noting that this has been the third time that he met with Sarkozy so far this year, Hu said the two sides have had frank and in-depth exchange of views on bilateral links, world economic situation, G20 affairs and major international issues and reached many important consensus.

The development of China-France relations has maintained good momentum recently. President Hu paid a state visit to France in November last year and met Sarkozy in March and August this year when the French president traveled to China.