Mr Raffarin said he wished to express solidarity with China

China has said it will attend the G8 summit of leaders in France next month.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin had invited Chinese President Hu Jintao during a visit to Beijing in April.

The French Government has said Mr Hu would not attend the main meetings of the economic summit but would meet leaders of the club of the world's richest nations and Russia on the sidelines of the conference.

"China supports France's initiative and is making active preparations to attend this meeting," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue.

"We believe this meeting is necessary at this moment and very important."

Solidarity

The G8 consists of the Group of Seven (G7) rich countries - the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Canada - plus Russia.

Russia has participated in the annual summit for several years, after earlier being invited to talks only on the sidelines.

During his trip to China, Mr Raffarin said he wanted China to attend the meeting because it would focus on development issues and because France wanted to express its solidarity over the struggle to deal with the deadly Sars virus.

The summits have traditionally had broad agendas including discussions on the prospects for world economic growth, the need to combat terrorism, and help for the world's poor, especially in Africa.

Critics say the summits are just talking shops and photo opportunities, while enthusiasts say it is important that the world's leaders keep talking.

This year's meet will be held in Evian on 1-3 June.