GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel set off for China yesterday on the first leg of a weeklong Asian tour, with climate change and economic ties among the issues topping her agenda.

Merkel headed for Beijing, where she is to meet President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao today. She also plans to visit the city of Nanjing before continuing to Japan on Wednesday.

That leg will feature a visit to Kyoto, which gave its name to the current protocol limiting greenhouse gas emissions — underlining Merkel’s push for a new global agreement to combat climate change once that agreement expires in 2012.

The visit will be Merkel’s second to China as chancellor and her first to Japan and comes four months before world environment ministers meet in Bali, Indonesia, to try to launch new talks to extend the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

“The aim of the trip to China is to deepen relations. In particular, we have possibilities for closer cooperation on the environment, energy efficiency, green technology and innovation,” said a government official.

Merkel has used her presidency of the Group of Eight industrialized nations this year to push world nations to do more to fight climate change, and she wants to do more.

“In the remaining months of her presidency and ahead of Bali she wants to continue work on the climate,” said a second official.

(SD-Agencies)