BOAO, China Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji Friday told an Asian economic forum that Tomorrow's China will remain a country at peace with the outside world, seeking the benefits of economic cooperation with other nations.

"The Chinese people love peace, and China's development needs peace," he told delegates of the Boao Forum for Asia on the tropical island of Hainan. "An economically developed China will pose no threat to any country or region."

The premier, introduced to the audience as "the CEO of china's economic modernization," said the reforms of the world's most populous country would bring benefits both at home and abroad.

"The new leap forward in China's economic reform, opening up and modernization drive will not only bring enormous benefits to the Chinese people," he said in a keynote speech.

"(It will) also deliver unlimited business opportunities, ushering in broad prospects for economic cooperation in Asia and the world," he said.

The two-day forum, designed as an Asian alternative to the World Economic Forum, brings together top officials from governments, companies and academia.

Also attending the forum are Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Joizumi, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Han-dong and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Friday that Japan would promote free trade pacts, an area where Asia's biggest economy has lagged behind fast-growing China due to opposition from farmers.

His comments are the latest sign of Japan's efforts to step up economic ties in Asia in the wake of China's agreement last November with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to establish a free-trade area within 10 years.

Speaking at the Boao forum for Asia Koizumi emphasizes his commitment to painful economic reforms.

And he reiterated that he did not regard China's economic development as a threat.

"I believe a rising economic tide and expansion of the market in China will stimulate competition and will prove to be a tremendous opportunity for the world economy as a whole," Koizumi said.

Koizumi aims to use the Boao forum to soothe concerns over competition posed by a weaker yen and ease tensions with Beijing as the two Asian giants prepare to mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties, Reuters quoted analysts as saying.

In his first major speech on Tokyo's Asian policy since an address in Singapore in January -- in which he called for closer economic ties with ASEAN -- Koizumi said Asia needs to tackle challenges such as carrying out reforms and boosting cooperation.