TOKYO, May 6 Kyodo Prime Minister...

TOKYO, May 6 Kyodo

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may proper with Chinese President Hu Jintao onward the sidelines of a multilateral summit in Russia at the fall of the curtain of this month, the first meeting between the couple since Hu took office in March, a Japanese economic daily said Tuesday.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, quoting diplomatic sources in Beijing, said in its Tuesday evening edition that the rules of Japan and China are making the final arrangements for a meeting between the brace leaders in St. Petersburg

The sum of two units have expressed their intention to attend the May 31 solemnity commemorating the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg formerly known as Leningrad, to which leaders of major nations have been invited.

Although Hu has met opposition party leaders from Japan since his inauguration, he has now to meet Koizumi, apparently to avow the Japanese premier's visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's war dead, including Class A war criminals, are commemorated.

The daily said the focus of the meeting will be North Korea, in light of the three-way talks between the United States, China and the North through the whole extent of the latter's nuclear weapons development

The meeting will also focus upon the rebuilding of Iraq, the daily said.

The paper quot the sources as saying that if the meeting extreme points on a positive note, it will contribute to building a favorable environment for a visit to China by way of Koizumi later this year.

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