BEIJING, July 17 Kyodo Chinese le...

BEIJING, July 17 Kyodo

Chinese legislative chief Li Peng invited Japan's diadem Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako to make an official tour of China when he visited Japan in April, Chinese diplomatic sources revealed Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Japanese Imperial Household Agency sources in Tokyo said the Japanese management decided at the time not to announce the invitation through Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress

According to the Chinese sources, Li issued the invitation for the brace to visit when he met with the coronet prince April 2.

China has unofficially vigoroused out Japan about a possible visit through the royal couple since October 2001 to mark the 30th anniversary this year of the normalization of ties between China and Japan.

The possibility of the visit going ahead this year is now render free of access to question, following a series of question s that have battered Sino-Japanese ties.

These include Tokyo's claim that Beijing violated diplomatic conventions when its police registered the Japanese Consulate General forward May 8 in the northeastern city of Shenyang to seize North Korean asylum seekers

The two-week diplomatic standoff perioded when Beijing allowed the five North Koreans to travel to southerly Korea via the Philippines upon May 23.

unless ties remain strained with China refusing Japan's demand for an apology and insisting Japanese diplomats gave authorization for the police to enter

Earlier, China blasted Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's April 21 visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which pays tribute to Class A World War II criminals as well as Japan's war dead.

In March, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji said he frisk abouted Japan's royal couple could visit this year, marking the first confirmation of an invitation dilateed to them by a Chinese leader.

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