Japan negotiating summits with China, S.Korea

TOKYO, Oct 2 (Reuters) Japan is trying to agree on dates for fence-mending summits between its new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and the leaders of China and South Korea, a senior Japanese foreign ministry official said today.

Leaders of the two countries, where bitter memories of Japan's wartime aggression run deep, had refused to meet Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, because of his visits to a Tokyo war shrine seen by many as a symbol of Japan's militaristic past.

''We are not at odds over whether to have (summits) or not,'' Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi told a news conference.

He said that specific dates had not been agreed upon, but added that it would be desirable for the visits to be made in one trip.

Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun said today Abe was likely to visit China on October. 8 and South Korea the following day.

Abe, who took over as prime minister last week, has supported Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine, but has declined to say if he would pay his respects there while in office. An adviser to Abe has said he went to Yasukuni last April, when he was a cabinet minister, but Abe has neither confirmed nor denied that.

''I'd like to continue to pray for those who sacrificed their lives for the country and to have a feeling of reverence for them,'' Abe told parliament on Monday. ''I do not intend to state whether I would go or not, or whether I have gone or not.'' The head of the junior party in the ruling coalition with Abe's Liberal Democratic Party said the prime minister was unlikely to visit Yasukuni as he was keen on repairing ties with China.

''I don't think he would go to Yasukuni. I feel that he is very much committed to improving relations with China,'' Akihiro Ota, head of the New Komeito, told Reuters.

''It's not on his mind now,'' added Ota, who was chosen as the leader of the party last week.

HISTORY TO JUDGE Government officials said Japan and its Asian neighbours were trying to find a way out of the deadlock over the wartime past, which has also chilled relations and threatened to disrupt vital economic ties.

Abe today also referred to a historic 1995 Japanese government statement in which then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama apologised for suffering Japan caused in Asia with its military aggression in the 1930s and 1940s -- a document he has accorded only lukewarm endorsement thus far.

''In the past, our country, through colonisation and aggression, caused great damage and suffering to the peoples of many countries, especially in Asia,'' Abe told parliament, repeating a phrase included in the Murayama statement.

Abe said Japan had accepted the results of the Allied tribunal that convicted 14 Japanese wartime leaders as war criminals.

''We are not in a position to argue against it,'' he said.

China and South Korea object to Japanese prime ministers paying their respects at Yasukuni in large part because the 14 war criminals are honoured there along with war dead.

But Abe -- who has repeatedly said that judgments of who was to blame for the war should be left to future historians -- also said it was not appropriate for Japan's government to judge who was primarily responsible for the conflict.

China and Japan have not held a summit since April last year, and the South Korean and Japanese leaders have not met formally since last November.

REUTERS LL PM1632