Backgrounder: List of major public and political leaders in WEF annual meeting

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- The five-day World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting kicked off on Wednesday in the Swiss ski resort of Davos under the principal theme of "the Power of Collaborative Innovation."

The following is a list of some of the major public and political leaders attending the WEF annual event:

Heads of state or government:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, Israeli President Shimon Peres, Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong.

Chiefs of international or regional bodies:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan, World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering and International Labour Organization Director-General Juan Somavia.

Chinese participants:

Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan, and Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, will be among the Chinese participants.