China's Li urges warm Japan ties, mentions history

TOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing today expressed hope that a recent rapprochement in ties with Tokyo would stay on course, but also mentioned the wartime past that haunts relations, Kyodo news agency reported.

Li arrived in Tokyo yesterday for talks aimed at smoothing the way for an April visit by Premier Wen Jiabao that would be the first by a top Chinese leader since 2000 and symbolise a thaw that began when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took part in an ice-breaking summit in Beijing in October.

''Precisely because this year is the 70th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge incident (that started the Sino-Japanese War), I want to maintain the present impetus for improved relations,'' Kyodo quoted Li as telling ruling Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Hidenao Nakagawa.

Experts say the two Asian giants are keen to keep relations on an even keel after the deep chill that developed under Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, who made annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, seen by Beijing as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Once known for his tough talk towards China, Abe has worked since taking office in September to repair relations, partly by declining to say if he would visit Yasukuni.

Before taking office, Abe had visited the shrine, which honours Japanese World War Two leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal after Japan's defeat.

History, however, is likely to haunt ties, especially in a year that marks some sensitive anniversaries of wartime events including the July 7, 1937, skirmish at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing that became a spark for an all-out Sino-Japanese War.

This year also marks the 70th anniversary of Japanese soldiers' 1937 slaughter of Chinese civilians and prisoners of war in Nanjing.

China has put the Nanjing death toll at 300,000. An Allied tribunal after World War Two estimated that around 142,000 were killed, while some Japanese conservatives deny there was any massacre at all.

REUTERS PB RN1120