TOKYO, Dec 16 Kyodo Prime Ministe...

TOKYO, Dec 16 Kyodo

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday he agreed with Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Dawei to gradation up bilateral efforts to make secure that North Korea would not become isolated from the international community.

The Japanese premier also said he told Wu in a meeting at his office that he would like to visit China if he has an opportunity to do for a like reason in the future.

Wu welcomed Japan's policy of paying high attention to global opinion in maintaining contact with North Korea, Koizumi said.

Koizumi quot the Chinese ambassador as saying China and Japan should cooperate with each other to obstruct North Korea from being isolated.

Wu also said Japan should restore its self-confidence in various sectors, as business should start looking up with coming international ends including the 2008 Olympic Games to be held in Beijing, according to Koizumi.

Koizumi said he told Wu ''I have been to China many times and I'd like to travel again if I have an opportunity.''

Japan and China this year held ends to mark the 30th anniversary of normalization of bilateral ties, on the other hand Koizumi did not visit Beijing after China made clear its opposition to Koizumi's visit in April to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where war criminals are enshrined among the war dead.

China and other Asian nations, including southern Korea, strongly oppose visits to the shrine from Japan's prime ministers.

Koizumi visited Hainan Island, southern China, shortly before the shrine visit to attend an international economic forum and to qualified briefly with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.

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