Asian stocks rose, with the regional index rebounding from its biggest drop in six months, after Premier Wen Jiabao said China will focus more on bolstering economic growth.

China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd rose 1.8 percent in Hong Kong. BHP Billiton Ltd climbed 2 percent in Sydney after RBC Capital Markets said the world's largest mining company may start a new share buyback. Nintendo Co, a manufacturer of game consoles that gets a third of its sales in Europe, fell 1.4 percent in Tokyo. OCI Co, a chemicals maker, slumped 4.4 percent in Seoul after delaying expansion plans because of Europe's debt crisis.

Wen's pledge on Chinese growth "will be a support for the market when we see clear signs of it", said Shintaro Takeuchi, portfolio investment group manager at Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. "Stocks are becoming cheaper and fewer people are selling them, but they're not cheap enough to buy either."

Gains were limited before German and French leaders meet on Monday to discuss the euro after the G8 nations exposed disagreement on a rescue strategy.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 0.3 percent on Monday before the Bank of Japan's two-day meeting on Tuesday.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index increased 0.7 percent, its first increase in five days, while South Korea's Kospi Index rose 0.9 percent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.1 percent.

Wen said China will focus more on bolstering economic growth, indicating policies may be loosened further as inflation moderates.

"We should continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy, while giving more priority to maintaining growth," Wen said during a tour of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, from Friday to Sunday.

China's foreign-exchange regulator approved $26 billion in quotas for 138 qualified investors looking to buy into its domestic securities, according to a statement by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Sunday.

China Overseas Land rose 1.8 percent to HK$15.06 ($1.94) in Hong Kong. CSR Corp jumped 6.8 percent to HK$5.79, leading its peers higher after the 21st Century Business Herald reported the railway ministry has gotten a credit line of more than 2 trillion yuan ($316 billion), signaling transport projects may resume.

Fanuc Corp, a maker of industrial robots that gets almost half its revenue from Asia outside Japan, rose 1.5 percent to 13,050 yen ($164.35) in Tokyo. The company will expand its production capacity for equipment to control machine tools by 30 percent, the Nikkei newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information.

Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.9 percent on Monday after the index slid 0.7 percent in New York on Friday.

BHP rose 2 percent to A$32.10 ($31.61) in Sydney. The company may start a new share buyback after last week trimming an $80 billion spending plan over five years, RBC Capital Markets said in a report on Friday.