China expects to strengthen mutual strategic trust and coordinate its standpoint over the financial crisis when leaders of the four BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) meet in Yekaterinburg, Russia on Tuesday.

"Cooperation among the BRIC countries will be essential in helping with the world's economic recovery," Deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei told a press conference last week before Chinese President Hu Jintao's departure from Beijing.

China hopes the four countries will broaden their consensus and enhance their mutual trust, Wu Hailing, director of international affairs of the Foreign Ministry, said Monday in a press conference.

BRIC gets increasing recognitionRussia shows its political clout by hosting Bric summit

Although global economic crisis and reforms in international financial institutions top BRIC summit agenda, the leaders will also discuss issues on food, energy and climate change.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told national security advisors of BRIC countries at a Kremlin meeting late May that the exchange would be constructive for the "development of the four nations, global security and ensuring economic, food and energy security".

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday the world's economic recovery was "closely linked" to the success of the BRIC economies.

"The BRIC summit in Yekaterinburg opens a new stage in political dialogue and diplomatic interaction between our four countries," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday in an interview with the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

"BRIC countries are playing an increasingly prominent role in international affairs, and are showing their readiness to assume responsibilities in proportion to their standing in the modern world," he added.

BRIC leaders will also explore their future dialogues at the summit while reviewing the Heiligendamm process, an initiative that will institutionalize high-level dialogue between the G8 and the five most important emerging economies - China, Mexico, India, Brazil and South Africa - known as the "Outreach Five" - and the establishment of a common G5 + G8 platform at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.