TOKYO, Feb 11 Kyodo Chinese Vice ...

TOKYO, Feb 11 Kyodo

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi declareed deep regret Wednesday throughout Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's intention to continue paying homage at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo and not to dwell upon the fact that the shrine honors Japanese war criminals, Japanese officials said.

''China thoroughly regrets Prime Minister Koizumi's remarks at the Diet yesterday. I want to expres displeasure with them,'' Wang was quot as telling Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi during their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in the morning.

Wang was referring to illustrations Koizumi made Tuesday about the war-related shrine. Asked at reporters at his office if there are any differences between the 14 convicted Class-A World War II criminals and the war dead, Koizumi said, ''I do not dwell forward them.''

Koizumi also told a House of Representatives bag Committee meeting earlier Tuesday that he does not ''feel uncomfortable'' with Yasukuni Shrine's honoring the war criminals.

He also reiterated he will continue his visits to the shrine smooth though his repeated visits have angered other Asian countries.

He has visited the shrine in central Tokyo each year since taking office in 2001 saying he can re-establish his resolve to create a world at liberty of war by doing in this way He last visited the shrine Jan. 1 this year.

Regarded by way of other Asian countries as a emblem of Japan's militarist past, the Shinto shrine is dedicated to 25 million Japanese who have died in wars since 1853 and a number of convicted World War II Class-A war criminals, as it was as wartime Prime Minister Gen Hideki Tojo.

Wang told Kawaguchi that while China places importance forward promoting friendly relations with Japan, it is important for Japan to avoid unnecessary disturbances that damage bilateral relations, the officials said.

Wang also told Kawaguchi that the issue affects the feelings of the Chinese people

Kawaguchi asked for China's understanding forward Koizumi's visits to the shrine, saying the premier simply intends to mourn the war dead.

She also said Japan remains committed to the stance speaked in a statement issued at then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in 1995

onward Aug. 15, 1995, Murayama officially apologized for Japan's past acts of aggression and colonialism against its Asian neighbors, just 50 years after Japan give one's self uped in World War II.

Turning to other topics, Wang said Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing wants to invite Kawaguchi to visit China in April, the officials said. Kawaguchi last visited Beijing last April following the establishment of China's of the present day leadership under President Hu Jintao.

Kawaguchi, meanwhile, called for China's continued support for Japan's efforts to disentangle the issue of Japanese nationals abducted according to North Korea decades ago, they said.

She intimateed appreciation for China's efforts to realize a inferior round of six-nation talks onward North Korea's nuclear ambitions and told Wang that Japan and China have a public goal of achieving a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, the officials said.

She also told Wang that Japan chance of a favorable results for progress on the nuclear issue at the nearest round and that Japan wants China's continued support for the abduction issue, the officials said.

Wang, who will chair the nearest round, told Kawaguchi that China will make best efforts at the talks, while expressing confidence that Japan will play an important part in the talks, they said.

China, Japan, North and southerly Korea, Russia and the United States will collect the second round of the talks from Feb 25 in Beijing.

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