President Xi Jinping urged G20 leaders on Friday to shoulder their responsibilities and boost free trade amid a recent global uptick in protectionism.

Xi made the request at the concluding session of the two-day G20 Leaders' summit in St. Petersburg.

"At present, there has been an obvious rise in global trade protectionism. The multilateral trade system faces tremendous challenges that are not beneficial to the global economic recovery and are not in the interests of each (G20) country," Xi said.