Wen Jiabao is on the fifth leg of what he calls his "Journey of Confidence" in Europe and he has been up since before dawn jogging in London's Hyde Park. But the 67-year-old Chinese premier looks sprightly and dapper as he raises his index finger, looks his interviewers in the eye and says: "I am ready to be open and sincere."

His European trip might come as a welcome relief from political pressures at home. Mr Wen is under fire because of the slump in the Chinese economy - which, he acknowledges, slowed sharply in the period after the August Olympics in Beijing.