Talking points

Deputy US Secretary of State William Burns is in Seoul on the first leg of a five-day trip taking in Beijing and Tokyo amid regional tensions and territorial disputes. The visit to Seoul will provide an opportunity "to follow up on last month's US-South Korea strategic dialogue and to continue to co-ordinate closely on our shared goal of the denuclearisation of North Korea", the State Department said. Burns will visit China from tomorrow until Thursday when the two sides will exchange views on Sino-US relations as well as international and regional issues.

China will today release its economic growth data for the fourth quarter - with analysts expecting figures to show that last year saw the weakest economic performance in 14 years. A Bloomberg survey projected that China's gross domestic product slowed to 7.6 per cent in the final three months of last year, from 7.8 per cent in the previous quarter. That would put the full-year growth rate at 7.7 per cent, above the government's 7.5 per cent official target, but mark the weakest growth since 1999.