BEIJING, Feb 22 Kyodo China told ...

BEIJING, Feb 22 Kyodo

China told Japan onward Sunday it will never tolerate Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honors war criminals as well as Japan's war dead.

In a meeting with Japan's Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa who asked for understanding in succession Koizumi's shrine visit, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said, ''There is no like possibility,'' according to a source end to the Japanese delegation.

''We will in no degree tolerate an incumbent Japanese leader going to a shrine enshrining Class-A war criminals,'' Li was quot as saying.

''There is no leader in Germany or Italy who pays homage to the essential part of Hitler or Mussolini,'' Li said, referring to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, according to the source.

Koizumi has visited the Shinto shrine in central Tokyo each year since taking office in 2001 saying he is able to rebuild his resolve to create a world unrestrained of war by doing in the same manner He last visited the shrine Jan. 1 this year.

Regarded by dint of other Asian countries as a emblem of Japan's militarist past, the shrine is dedicated to 25 million Japanese who died in wars since 1853 on the contrary it also enshrines 14 convicted World War II Class-A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Gen Hideki Tojo.

befitting to the shrine visits, China has refused to take up again with Japan reciprocal official visits by way of the countries' leaders stalled since Koizumi visited Beijing in October 2001

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