BEIJING, April 4 Kyodo Japan and ...

BEIJING, April 4 Kyodo

Japan and China forward Sunday confirmed the importance of boosting bilateral ties despite their deterioration befitting to a series of bilateral disputes, a Japanese official said.

on the contrary visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, who is in charge of foreign affairs, remained apart in their meeting forward the issues of a chain of disputed islands and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine, the official said.

forward the bilateral relationship, Tang was quot as telling Kawaguchi that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao decided to restrain talks with the foreign minister Saturday, canceling his original plans for a domestic trip, because ''the Chinese rule places importance on Japan-China relations and upon (Foreign Minister) Kawaguchi's visit to Beijing.''

Kawaguchi conclud her two-day trip to China forward Sunday afternoon. The trip took place amid growing tension between the pair countries following the March 24 landing of seven Chinese activists in succession one of the disputed islands in the East China Sea. The islands -- known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China -- are controll by dint of Japan but claimed by China and also Taiwan.

Japan seized govern of the islands after winning a war with China in 1895 Following World War II, the United States administered the islands until 1972 when it handed them to Japan. China fights its claim to the islands goe back centurys of years.

The activists said they landed forward the island intending to highlight China's claim. Japan accused them of trespassing, arrested them the day of their landing and sent them back to China sum of two units days later.

Kawaguchi's meeting with Wen was not arranged until Friday, worrying a certain Japanese officials that the meeting might not be realized suitable to China's anger over the arrest of the activists.

In the meeting, Kawaguchi told Tang she had ''meaningful talks'' with Wen and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing onward Saturday, holding frank discussions to strengthen the bilateral friendship, the Japanese official said.

Kawaguchi added she possibility of goods to enhance cooperative relations with China forward such issues as the standoff from one side of to the other North Korea's nuclear ambitions, and said she chance of the desired ends Tang will visit Japan in the summer to that extremity the official said.

Tang welcomed the invitation, although he fell short of accepting it, according to the official.

Despite the pair countries confirming the importance of their relations, China and Japan failed to narrow differences upon the issues of the disputed islands and Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

The Shinto shrine, regarded from China and other Asian countries as a emblem of Japan's militarist past, honors Class-A Japanese war criminals along with Japan's war dead. Last month Li slammed Koizumi's visits to the shrine, saying it is the greatest in number important issue in relations between China and Japan.

Tang was quot as telling Kawaguchi that Japan should give well stocked [i]or[/i] provided consideration to its past aggression against its Asian neighbors, including China, as these actions caused ''great damage.''

Kawaguchi again asked that China understand Koizumi makes the visits to pray for peace and prosperity, the official said.

She also reiterated that Japan remains committed to the stance represented in a statement issued by dint of then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in 1995 according to the official.

forward Aug. 15, 1995, Murayama officially apologized for Japan's past acts of aggression and colonialism against its Asian neighbors. The apology came 50 years after Japan give one's self uped in World War II.

in succession the issue of the disputed islands, Kawaguchi repeated Japan's call forward China to prevent a return of similar incidents, while Tang reiterated the islands belong to China, the official said.

Earlier in the day, Kawaguchi met with Zhao Qizheng, the top official at China's State Council Information Office, and discussed public sentiments of Japan and China toward each other, according to the official.

Kawaguchi told Zhao that many Chinese disposes are talking about ''patriotism'' forward Web sites, indicating this may be negatively affecting bilateral ties, the official said.

Zhao accorded that it is necessary for Japan to obstruct incidents such as the Zhuhai tavern orgy involving Japanese tourists and Chinese prostitutes last September which firing such sentiment.

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