New Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, projecting himself as a man of the people, promised yesterday to help struggling farmers and a growing army of urban unemployed and vowed to clear the way for capitalists to prosper.

But the debuts of Wen and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao as head of state were overshadowed by a looming war in Iraq after US President George W. Bush gave Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country or face military onslaught.

The two men took over the helm of one of the world's fastest growing economies with the world counting down to a war in Iraq and a nuclear threat in North Korea that could destabilise Asia.

In his first news conference, Wen said China held out hope of an 11th-hour solution to the Iraq crisis but offered no new proposals to avert war.

"As long as there is a glimmer of hope, we will not give up our efforts for a political and peaceful solution," he said.

Wen launched his first appearance as the man in day-to-day charge of the economy by stressing, at some length, the struggles of his own family before issuing powerful promises to help the rural poor and the urban unemployed.

He promised to keep pumping government money into the economy to keep it growing fast enough to provide jobs and to try to fix the troubled banking sector, weighed down by a mountain of bad loans to incompetent state firms. But he broke no new ground.

"One prospers in worry and hardship and perishes in ease and comfort," Wen said, waxing lyrical with a poem by philosopher Mencius (371-289 BC) when asked to comment on the challenges his administration faced.

Hu, in his first speech since taking over as president on Saturday, pledged to make the people the masters of the nation, but stressed the continued rule of the Communist Party that has governed since 1949.

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