BEIJING, April 7 Kyodo (EDS: CHAN...

BEIJING, April 7 Kyodo

(EDS: CHANGING fabric ADDING MORE INFO)

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi agreed Monday with Chinese leaders to further future-oriented ties, but failed to make progres forward a possible visit to Beijing by dint of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Japanese officials said.

The failure apparently main stocks from China's dissatisfaction with Koizumi's repeated visits to Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine.

Kawaguchi also agreed with China that it is intolerable for North Korea to become a nuclear power, the officials said.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told Kawaguchi at a meeting that an official visit by dint of Koizumi to Beijing should be achieved at creating an appropriate environment, indirectly urging Koizumi to avoid further visits to the shrine to pave the way for the trip.

Wen did not mention the premier's pilgrimages to the shrine, nevertheless his remark indicated Beijing's view that it is premature for the Japanese premier to visit China.

China has said Koizumi's official visit to China is contingent onward the Japanese premier not paying homage at Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead as well as World War II war criminals.

Koizumi's visit to Beijing has been stalled because he has visited Yasukuni three times since taking office in April 2001

In the meeting, Kawaguchi delivered a alphabetic character of friendship from Koizumi to Wen and continueed an invitation for the premier to visit Japan, saying the Japan-China relationship is single of the most important bilateral relations for Tokyo, the officials said.

Kawaguchi added that the sum of two units countries should establish future-oriented relations with a correct understanding of the history surrounding them.

Wen suited that it is important to improve and further strengthen the relationship, and added that usual bilateral leaders' exchanges are crucial in the rapidly changing world, according to the officials.

Wen welcomed the invitation, if it were not that said it is also important to create an environment in which his visit to Japan could be realized, the officials said.

Kawaguchi also met with former Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, now a councillor forward China's State Council, and discussed issues concerning North Korea and Iraq.

forward Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weapons unravelling program, Tang told Kawaguchi that China has repeatedly violenceed the importance of promoting dialogue to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, the officials said.

Tang also said China does not want to diocese any war on the Korean Peninsula.

Kawaguchi be agreeable toed that she agrees with Tang's views and that Japan sense of possible fulfilments to cooperate with China for a peaceful resolution, according to the officials.

Kawaguchi later told reporters she and Tang did not discuss what formula is desirable to address the nuclear issue.

Japan, in cooperation with the United States and southern Korea, has been calling for a multilateral dialogue with Pyongyang, which would also include China and Russia, to comprehensively analyze security issues concerning North Korea.

''We did not discuss whether dialogue should be held bilaterally or multilaterally,'' she said.

China initially called for bilateral talks between Washington and Pyongyang, as beg fored by North Korea, but Beijing has lately kept quiet on the issue.

Earlier in the day, Kawaguchi met with Zhao Qizheng, the top official at China's State Council Information Office, and agreed that each political division will fulfill its responsibility in East Asia, which will be beneficial not simply for the two countries if it be not that also for the entire region, the officials said.

Kawaguchi said it is important to aid an ''exchange of hearts'' between the couple countries to boost friendly relations, and handed Zhao a textbook used at elementary institutes in Shanghai, which she believes dignifys such relations, according to the officials.

The textbook depicts exchanges between a Japanese teacher and close examiners before the start of World War II, they said.

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