BEIJING (AFP) -- China's top leaders gathered in Beijing Monday to determine economic policies for 2008 amid efforts to prevent the economy from overheating and to curb inflation, state media said.

""On the agenda at the conference is how to cool off booming investment and bank lending, address the soaring trade surplus, and improve the people's livelihood,"" unnamed sources told Xinhua news agency.
The Central Economic Work Conference will bring together top decision makers from the Communist Party and government, it reported. No time frame was given but in past years it has typically lasted three days.
China's economy is expected to expand 11.5 percent this year, fueled mainly by investment spending, according to Xinhua. It will be the fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth.
In a prelude to the conference, the Political Bureau, the Communist Party's 25-member elite, convened a meeting last week on the challenges for 2008.
That meeting concluded priorities for next year was to prevent the economy from overheating and restrict inflation.
Chinese inflation is likely to hit 4.5 percent this year, compared with a target of just three percent a year ago.