French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid a brief visit to the Chinese capital Thursday, and later said Chinese President Hu Jintao voiced confidence in the European economy and its currency, the euro.

Mr. Sarkozy, en route to the South Pacific, later said his talks with the Chinese leader focused in large part on an upcoming summit of the world's leading economies scheduled in France later this year. Mr. Sarkozy spoke of what he called “the great economic questions that worry the world,” and said he could not imagine not visiting Beijing to discuss them.

China holds about $750 billion worth of euro assets — about one-fourth of its overall foreign currency reserves.

Western news reports also quote Mr. Sarkozy as saying he has invited China to attend a Paris conference on Libya's future — a country he referred to as “the Libya of tomorrow.”

The French leader arrived in Beijing hours after a meeting with the leader of Libya's Transitional National Council, Mahmoud Jibril, as fighters in Tripoli sought to end the 42-year rule of Moammar Gadhafi.