The ninth China-EU Summit will inject momentum into bilateral relations but there are also challenges ahead, researchers and EU officials have said.

The annual summit ended in Helsinki, Finland on Saturday as leaders from both sides vowed to deepen their comprehensive strategic partnership, established in 2003.

Zhao Junjie, a researcher at the Institute of European Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said yesterday that the most substantial achievement at the meeting was the decision to launch talks on a new partnership agreement between China and the EU.

"The new agreement will greatly expand and deepen bilateral co-operation by putting into place a long-term mechanism for strategic co-ordination," he told China Daily.

"That suggests the EU attaches importance to its relations with China, and the EU-China relationship is entering a fruitful stage."

The EU is now China's biggest trade partner, with bilateral trade volume amounting to 217.3 billion U.S. dollars last year.

European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner on Sunday hailed the proposed talks as a "real breakthrough" for bilateral ties.

"The summit is excellent, the atmosphere is very good," Ferrero-Waldner was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency. "It's a very important breakthrough."

"In order to reflect the full breadth and depth of today's comprehensive strategic partnership between the EU and China, the two sides agreed to launch negotiations on a Partnership and Co-operation Agreement ...," said a joint statement issued on Saturday after the summit.

Ferrero-Waldner said the current legal framework for EU-China relations the Agreement on Trade and Economic Co-operation signed in 1985 "is a trade agreement," and it has failed to reflect the reality of the current EU-China ties.

EU-China relations are "much broader" now, said Waldner, adding that bilateral ties comprise many dialogues like politics, trade, energy, education and climate change.

"Therefore, the new partnership agreement will indeed show the breadth of our relations with China," the commissioner reportedly said.

Zhao highlighted a wide range of sectors for China-EU co-operation as included in the joint statement, such as energy, environment, bird flu, United Nations reform, anti-terrorism action as well as scientific research.

"It clearly explains that China and the EU are strengthening their partnership with more pragmatic and concrete co-operation," he said.