India visit

After the summit, Hu will pay a two-day visit to India and attend the fourth annual summit of BRICS leaders in New Delhi, scheduled from March 28 to 29.

Hu will attend the meeting with his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, South African President Jacob Zuma and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The banking institutions of BRICS have been "looking into and discussing" ways to create a development bank, Ma said.

A mechanism for investing in local currencies to maximize financial transactions among BRICS member states may also be created, according to analysts. The investments have so far been made in US dollars and euros.

These arrangements could be finalized around the summit of the BRICS nations grouping Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"The role of emerging markets and the demand for cooperation are both on the rise," Ma said, referring to the background of this year's BRICS summit, adding that intra-group cooperation will not be confined to economic and financial sectors.

"With shared interests and a common or similar take on things, the leaders will quite naturally touch upon issues of mutual global concern," he said.

The member states' positions on the European debt crisis and the World Bank's top job - which until now has been held by Americans - "will likely come up in these discussions", Ma said.