About 500 business leaders from Asia and Africa kicked off a summit on 19th to explore business opportunities between the two continents, the biggest ever of the kind for them.

They expressed their willingness to build new Asian-African partnership that will help facilitate closer economic relationship between Asia and Africa.

The meeting is being held on the sideline of the second Asian-African Conference scheduled on 22-23 and the commemoration of thegolden jubilee of the first Asian-African Conference held in Bandung.

To address the two-day business summit will be about ten world leaders including Chinese President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South African President Thabo Mbeki.

In his opening speech, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the gathering will help revive the Spirit of Bandung by strengthening social and economic cooperation between peoples of the two continents.

He recalled that the Bandung Spirit, which calls for solidarity,equality and cooperation among developing countries, has failed towork in socioeconomic and cultural fields although it has helped transformed the political landscape of the world.

"At the summit, we will make up for five decades of lost opportunities to harness the Bandung Spirit for the socioeconomic welfare of Asian and African peoples by establishing New Asian-African Strategic Partnership (NAASP)," he said.

About 50 heads of state or governments are expected to jointly announce the establishment of the NAASP later this week.

Susilo is confident of the new partnership, saying "it will work because all of us will make it work."

Describing the current Asian-African economic cooperation as remarkable, Suliso said it could become a miracle. And he expecteda shaper rise in economic relations between the two continents.

For Africa's part, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told the meeting that the business summit marks "the beginning of a closer and beneficial cooperation between the private sectors of both continent."

He lodged complaints against the new economic globalization, saying it "has little or no regard for culture, history, values and the dreams of the weak."

He said a new Asian-African partnership will help African countries reduce their total dependence on the developed countries.

President of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mohamad Hidayat also welcomed such partnership, saying it is the common wish by Asian and African countries to build closer business ties among them.

The theme of the business summit, "Asia-Africa Renewing the Spirit of Collaboration," reflects "the prevailing mood of countries in Asia and Africa" to strengthen business cooperation and to build mutually beneficial partnership on economic development activities, he said.

Such partnership is necessary as "the challenge or eradication of poverty and underdevelopment remains as pressing today as it was 50 years ago," he pointed out.

In this summit, he said, the business sector will discuss how to "build bridges and remake ourselves, and draw lessons from those that have achieved better development since the Bandung Conference."

In addition to the business summit, Jakarta is also hosting a renewable energy regional congress and a trade show exclusively for the two continents, in an attempt to help facilitate Asian-African business opportunities on the sideline of the summit.