Beijing, 7 October (AKI) - Giuseppe Marra, president of one of Italy's leading media groups, Adnkronos, says the whole world is watching China with great interest. He is in the Asian country to attend the World Media Summit, taking place in the Chinese capital, Beijing, from Thursday until Saturday. The event is being attended by top media organisations from all over the world.

"It's an opportunity to exchange knowledge and perspectives on the evolution of the media and information sector in a prestigious venue in a country that the whole world is watching with great interest, Marra told China's Xinhua news agency.

Xinhua is organising the summit, being held in The Great Hall of the People from 8-10 October.

Xinhua has a media partnership with Adnkronos and the news agency's vice-president Zhou Xinheng met the Adnkronos delegation headed by Marra.

During the meeting, Xinheng stressed the constructive relations between Italy and China at all levels. He noted Adnkronos' diversification and multimedia development and said he hoped Adnkronos International would forge media partnerships with countries in North Africa.

Marra paid tribute to China's key role in world affairs and said it is also looking at the world with new interest.

"China is today the key country in the process of globalisation and all business and financial activities, not to mention world politics," he said.

The World Media summit offers participants the chance to look at possible cooperation and online multimedia integration. China "an extremely interesting" venue for such a meeting, Marra said.

The digital age will have have a profound impact on news, and editors and journalists must not lower their guard and must stay on high alert, he argued.

"Single users will carry in their pockets TVs, radios, computers and mobile phones. In this way the entire world will be able to communicate and interact in real time."

"This genuine post-modern revolution will have an impact on everything, from politics to finance and in all areas of modern life," he said.

"And in China more than anywhere, the post-modern technological revolution will have ramifications that today we cannot even imagine."

The three-day summit is intended to provide a forum for the world's media to examine the challenges and opportunities of the digital era and Internet technologies at a time of global recession.

Heads of media organisations from around the world will analyse the current situation, assess developing trends in the global media industry and a series of crucial issues facing media organisations amid fast-changing audience demands and rapidly evolving technologies.

More than 100 organisations from 70 countries have registered to attend the summit.

Discussion topics include: challenges and solutions in the digital and multimedia age, traditional media and new media, the financial crisis and media response, social responsibility, the impact of high-tech, and the future of journalism.