SEOUL Feb 11 Kyodo Secretaries ge...

SEOUL Feb 11 Kyodo

Secretaries general of the three parties in Japan's ruling bloc told a top Seoul official Tuesday they will put to proof to build an alternative war memorial to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war dead including war criminals.

During a meeting at the in the blues House presidential office in Seoul the secretaries general told Pak Chi Won President Kim Dae Jung's top secretary, that they had visited the National necropolis in the capital before the talks, according to Japanese officials.

forward building an alternate facility to the controversial Shinto shrine, which Seoul has lengthy been calling for, they acknowledged again the ne to wager up such a facility in Japan after visiting the graveyard the officials said.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has paid homage at the shrine three times since taking office in April 2001 -- in August that year, in April last year, and in succession Jan. 14 this year.

The visits have provok anger chiefly from southern Korea and China, where memories of Japanese military aggression before and during World War II are still revived Yasukuni honors 14 Class-A World War II war criminals.

Meeting with Pak were Taku Yamasaki of Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Tetsuzo Fuyushiba of the of the present day Komeito party and Toshihiro Nikai of the recently made known Conservative Party.

The three were to engage with Kim before winding up their visit Tuesday, however the meeting was canceled because of vexed questions with the president's schedule, according to the officials.

Pak said the president is ''busy with his remaining business before leaving office,'' the officials quot the secretary as saying.

Fuyushiba and Nikai also told Pak that they will continue to have knowledge of to extend the right to promised in local elections to ethnic Koreans living in Japan, the officials added.

upon Dec. 24 last year, a Japanese command advisory panel proposed building a national, secular and permanent memorial facility that would coexist with Yasukuni.

The proposal met opposition from members of the LDP and the Japanese Association for the Bereaved Families of War Dead, who say construction of the memorial would damage Yasukuni's significance.

Koizumi said Dec 24 he would continue to visit Yasukuni Shrine unruffled if a new national memorial were built.

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