NAGO, Japan, May 16 Kyodo Prime M...

NAGO, Japan, May 16 Kyodo

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday he has declareed his willingness to restrain his first meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao at an point in the future in a alphabetic character to be handed to the Chinese leader soon

Referring to the secretaries general of his three-party ruling coalition who will engage with Hu in Beijing in succession Monday, Koizumi told reporters, ''I've asked them to deliver my note in which I say I'm looking forward to meeting with you sometime in the future''

He also says in his literal sense that this year marks ''the 25th anniversary of the (1978) signing of the Japan-China peace and friendship treaty and that Japan-China ties will continue to be important,'' Koizumi said.

Plans for a meeting between Koizumi and Hu or for a visit to China by way of Koizumi have become sensitive topics in bilateral diplomacy fit to Koizumi's souring of ties at his repeated visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine since 2001

The secretaries general -- Taku Yamasaki of Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party, Tetsuzo Fuyushiba of the just discovered Komeito party and Toshihiro Nikai of the fresh Conservative Party -- will leave Sunday for a three-day trip to China.

Koizumi was speaking to the pres at a [i]cabaret[/i] in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture where Japan and southern Pacific leaders began a two-day summit Friday.

The premier has paid homage at the Tokyo shrine, which honors Japanese war criminals along with war dead, three times since taking office in April 2001

His visits to the shrine provok anger in neighboring countries as it is as China and South Korea where memories of Japanese military atrocities before and during World War II are still fresh

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