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TOKYO : Japan and China pledged Friday to build on a recent thaw in icy relations when President Hu Jintao visits in May, setting aside differences over Tibet, disputed gas fields and poisoned dumplings.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and other top officials as part of a trip aimed at clearing the way for Hu's trip, which will be the first visit here by a Chinese head of state in a decade.
"China would like to build a framework with Japan through the visit (by Hu) so that the two countries will prosper in the long term," Yang told reporters.
"I showed my appreciation to Prime Minister Fukuda as he said he supported a successful Olympics in China," he said.
The ministers appeared to have largely steered clear of the sensitive issue of Tibet on the second day of Yang's visit, though the Japanese government's number two, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, said he had raised it briefly.
"I only said there was a problem" in Tibet, Machimura said. "I hear the foreign ministers discussed the matter for quite a long time last night."
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura called for more transparency and dialogue over Tibet when he met his Chinese counterpart late Thursday, but Yang reiterated Beijing's view that it was an internal matter in which foreign nations should not interfere.
Although relations between Tokyo and Beijing have warmed recently, ties have been strained by a health scare here over Chinese-made dumplings and an ongoing dispute over lucrative drilling rights to gas fields in the East China Sea.
During his visit to China in December, Fukuda agreed with Hu to seek a resolution on the gas dispute at an early date, although no major breakthrough has yet been made.
Machimura said his own talks with Yang had mainly focused on food standards and that he had asked China to understand the Japanese people's concerns over the issue.
Fukuda, who took office in September, has sought friendly ties with China, which refused high-level contact during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi due to his visits to a shrine that honour Japanese war dead, including war criminals.
- AFP /ls
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