"China always keeps its word on finance," says Zapatero

China always keeps its word and will invest in Spain's savings banks, said Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero on Friday following day one of the Boao Economic Forum, considered the Davos of Asia.

These statements came a day after the government admitted that it had made an error in announcing that China's CIC sovereign fund would inject aboutnine billion eurosinto Spain's beleaguered cajas. The fund subsequently denied having such plans.

"China said it would buy Spanish debt and the numbers are there [the Asian country holds 25 billion euros]; it said it was committed to participating in the restructuring of the Spanish financial system, and it will. Actions are what matter, not words," said Zapatero, who was the only European leader invited to Boao.

Spain's savings banks, hard hit by the property bubble collapse, are scrambling to raise enough capital to meet new, more stringent EU requirements for lenders.

Zapatero, who has spent the whole week on an Asian tour, sought to prove that political and economic relations between Spain and China have grown exponentially under his administration.

"We are experiencing a historic change in world economic relations," he said. "Asia is the new protagonist. When I took office in 2004, Spain exported more to Andorra than to China. We barely existed in Asia. Now our exports there are in excess of 1.5 billion euros."