TOKYO, March 19 Kyodo Foreign Min...

TOKYO, March 19 Kyodo

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday she will visit China onward April 3-4 to discuss bilateral relations as well as the North Korean nuclear standoff with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.

Kawaguchi told reporters she will come together with Li on April 3

Foreign Ministry officials said the ministry is also trying to arrange Kawaguchi's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Kawaguchi waiting under the possibility of fulfilments to pave the way for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Beijing, which has been pending suitable to his repeated visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine, the officials said.

Earlier this month Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao slammed Koizumi's visits to the Shinto shrine, saying they are the guide problem in relations between the couple countries.

Koizumi has visited the Shinto shrine, which honors 14 World War II Class-A war criminals along with Japanese war dead, each year since taking office in April 2001 angering Japan's neighboring countries so as China and South Korea.

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