The European Commission will present ideas later this year on measures that could control outbound investment to prevent certain sensitive technologies going to rivals such as China, the EU executive's chief said on Thursday.

Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech on EU-China relations that European companies' capital, expertise and knowledge should not be used to enhance the military and intelligence capabilities of "systemic rivals".

Von der Leyen said the Commission would present initial ideas as part of an "Economic Security Strategy" later this year, with a possible "targeted instrument on outbound investment" that would cover a small number of sensitive technologies whose use by military elsewhere could pose risks to national security. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Sudip Kar-Gupta)