China, Japan seek end to historical differences

Beijing, May 8: Top diplomats from China and Japan sought to overcome differences linked to Tokyo's wartime past on a second day of talks today.

Relations are at their worst in decades, weighed down by disputes springing from Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China from 1931 to 1945 and from energy resources in disputed waters.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and his Japanese counterpart, Shotaro Yachi, began a fifth round of strategic dialogue yesterday, the foreign ministry said.

''The two sides exchanged ideas on current China-Japan relations and issues of common concern,'' it said in a one-line statement. The talks were continuing today in the southwestern Guizhou, Dai's home province, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.

Yachi also proposed the giant neighbours resume foreign ministerial talks that China halted last year after Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the Yasukuni war shrine, seen in Beijing as a symbol of Tokyo's past militarism, Kyodo said.

He suggested Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and his Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, meet later this month on the sidelines of an Asia Cooperation Dialogue meeting in Qatar, the report added.

The Japanese embassy declined to comment on the report and there was no immediate response from China's foreign ministry.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has said that developing good relations is in the two countries' fundamental interests but that Koizumi's visits to the war shrine were a stumbling block.

Despite the frayed relations, China and Japan are both involved in multilateral talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear programmes.

The negotiations have been on hold since last November, and Dai and Yachi would discuss how to revive them, Kyodo said.

Reuters

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