Beijing, which has described Mr Wen's trip as a “tour of confidence,” hopes it will help dispel some of the questions about the impact of the crisis on China's rapidly slowing economy. There are also hopes that it will boost relations damaged by the cancellation of a EU-China summit last month.

EU representatives, keen to secure Chinese co-operation to overcome the global downturn, are pleased that Mr Wen is to meet members of the Brussels-based European Commission en bloc, a gesture which they said showed that China's leaders were paying more attention to how EU institutions work.

Mr Wen's itinerary takes in the World Economic Forum in Davos as well as Brussels, Berlin, London and Madrid. But it excludes Paris, in an apparent sign of disapproval of a meeting Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, held last year with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader. That meeting prompted Beijing to cancel the EU-China summit in early December.