At the invitation of Prime Minister Dominique De Villepin of the Republic of France, Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda of the Slovak Republic, Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek of the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Jose Socrates of the Portuguese Republic and Prime Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi of Malaysia, Premier of the State Council Wen Jiabao left Beijing in his special plane on the morning of December 4 for official visits to the above five countries and to attend the 9th ASEAN plus China Summit, the 9th ASEAN Plus China, Japan and ROK Summit and the First East Asia Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur.

Among those who accompanied Premier Wen on the visits were Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Minister of Finance Jin Renqing, Minister of Agriculture Du Qinglin, Minister of culture Sun Jiazheng, Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council Jiao Huancheng, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Vice Minister of the State Development and Reform Commission Zhang Xiaoqiang, Vice Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou, Deputy Director of the Policy Research Office of the State Council Han Changfu and Director of the Premier's Office Qiu Xiaoxiong.