By Francis Markus BBC, Beijing

At its closing session, the new Prime Minister Wen Jiabao faced the local and international media in a customary news conference, where he frankly admitted the scale of China's economic problems.

I am a very ordinary person, I come from a family of teachers in the countryside. Wen Jiabao Profile of Wen Jiabao

First, he addressed the Chinese people watching live on television, as he tried to project the image that he was one of them.

"I am a very ordinary person, I come from a family of teachers in the countryside. My grandmother, my father and my mother were all teachers," he said.

It was an approach which will strike a welcome chord in itself, but it also foreshadows a change of emphasis by the new government, says the independent economic commentator Zhong Dajun.

"I think the new government may adjust China's development strategy because it's been too much focused on international trade and exports," he said.

"Of course it has provided jobs and attracted investment but it has also damaged some of our old industries."

"If the new government listens to some of the scholars they will pay more attention to developing the domestic market because if the farmers have more income there will be more domestic demand. I think they are very aware of this," he said.

But for Davin Mackenzie, an investment consultant and a former representative in Beijing of the World Bank affiliated IFC, there is no sign of a change in the government's policy.

The gap between China's East and China's West is really very wide. Wen Jiabao

"I don't think there is anything that will change them in the fundamental direction. They are committed to making the economy more linked to the outside world. The WTO is probably the best incarnation of their commitment to that," he said.

"I also think that their commitment to the private sector is one of the best ways that they have to create more jobs."

But some of the statistics facing the new government are worrying.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao reeled off some of China's biggest economic challenges.

"The gap between China's East and China's West is really very wide. The GDP from five or six provinces in coastal areas accounts for more that half of China's total GDP."

"Another of our problems we need to solve is the countryside, and the problems facing farmers. We also need to solve the problems of the laid-off and unemployed workers by creating more job opportunities," he said.

Small wonder then that he should have laid such emphasis on stability.

When asked if he would consider rehabilitating his former boss Zhao Ziyang, he replied only that China's achievement since the 1989 crackdown proved that stability was of vital importance.