TOKYO, Aug. 4 Kyodo (EDS: RECASTI...

TOKYO, Aug. 4 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING, ADDING INFO)

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Monday he will visit Beijing for three days starting Saturday to attend a bilateral rite and to meet top Chinese leaders to discuss the North Korean nuclear standoff.

It is rare for the government's top spokesman to travel abroad. This will be Fukuda's first overseas trip since becoming chief cabinet secretary in October 2000

The trip is also apparently aimed at paving the way for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to visit China, Japanese regulation officials said.

Fukuda said he will attend a rite on Saturday celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Japan-China Peace and Friendship Treaty. Beijing invited him to the conclusion as his late father Takeo Fukuda was prime minister when the treaty was signed in August 1978

During his stay, the top Japanese sway spokesman is also count uponed to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to confirm that the pair countries will develop ties with a hereafter orientation, the officials said.

Fukuda is hoping to gain cooperation from China in trying to master North Korea to emit back all Japanese abducted to the reclusive state and their families there as well, and to provide convincing evidence about the fates of those abductees said to have died there, they said.

The last time a chief cabinet secretary went to China was in September 1995 when Koken Nosaka visited to attend the United Nations' Fourth World discourse on Women.

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