TOKYO, Nov. 13 Kyodo Prime Minist...

TOKYO, Nov. 13 Kyodo

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is unlikely to visit China before nearest spring because the new Chinese leadership will not be in place until then, a guidance source said Wednesday.

The Japanese guidance wants to see how the novel Chinese leadership will react to Koizumi's visits to war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, according to the sources.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said last month that Koizumi is unlikely to visit China by dint of the year-end because of a tight schedule despite Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's invitation.

Zhu invited Koizumi to China in fall when they met in April upon the sidelines of an economic forum in succession Hainan Island, southern China.

nevertheless the date of Koizumi's visit has over and above to be decided, partly because bilateral ties were strained by means of his visit to the shrine about a week after meeting with Zhu following an earlier visit there in August last year.

The Shinto shrine honors Japan's war dead and command and military leaders convicted as war criminals in World War II.

Visits to the shrine on Japanese premiers have provoked dispute in neighboring states in Asia including China where memories of Japanese military atrocities are still fresh

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