BEIJING: The second trilateral leaders' meeting of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) kicked off here Saturday morning.

The meeting is chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and attended by ROK President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

"This year marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of a trilateral cooperative mechanism between China, Japan and the ROK. It is a milestone in the cooperation among the three countries," Wen said.

"This year is also crucial for us to cope with the international financial crisis and resume the economic growth," he said.

Later this month, the three leaders will attend a series of meetings to be held in Thailand.

"The trilateral summit offers a great opportunity for the leaders of the three countries to review and summarize the progress of trilateral cooperation and draw up the future plan," Wen said.

"People from the three countries have high expectations on the tripartite conference. It is also the focus of the international community. We should take joint efforts in reaping new positive achievements of the conference to further trilateral cooperation," Wen said.

Lee Myung-bak and Yukio Hatoyama also made remarks at the meeting.

Tsinghua University professor Liu Jiangyong believed the participants would have different focuses in the meeting.

China is expected to focus on promoting strategic mutual trust and cooperation among the three countries in coping with financial crisis, climate changes and regional problems, Liu said.

Japan is likely to stress building East Asian Community to strengthen trilateral cooperation, while the ROK side might touch upon topic of the denuclearization of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Liu said.

The first meeting was held in Fukuoka, Japan in 2008.