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TOKYO : Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday called for a new leap forward in relations in Japan as he paid a rare visit to Tokyo to ease decades of friction between the Asian giants.
Hu kicked off the trip by offering to lend Japan two pandas, a male and female, to replace the Tokyo zoo's beloved Ling Ling, who died just last week.
A day after he became the first Chinese head of state to step foot in Japan in a decade, Hu received a red-carpet welcome from Emperor Akihito and other members of the imperial family at their main palace.
A smiling Hu then opened talks with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, flanked by top ministers from Asia's two largest economic powers.
"I want to make efforts together with you to make this year, 2008, the first year of the third leap forward in the relationship," Hu said after shaking hands with Fukuda.
Relations between the two countries have been mired by disputes over Japan's past aggression in China.
China refused all high-level contact with Japan for five years until 2006 in anger at then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to a Tokyo shrine that venerates Japanese war dead including war criminals.
But Hu and Fukuda are expected largely to skirt over history issues in their talks and discuss ways to cooperate as the Japanese and Chinese economies become increasingly interlinked.
They are likely also to speak about a longstanding row over lucrative gas fields in the East China Sea. The two countries, both major energy importers, failed in their goal of resolving the dispute in time for Hu's trip.
Fukuda is a longtime advocate of reconciliation with China. His father, Takeo Fukuda, signed the landmark peace treaty with China in 1978, which followed a treaty normalising relations in 1972.
"This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship and we have a chance of further developing bilateral relations," Hu said.
"The Chinese government highly values the prime minister's positive efforts for improvement of China-Japan relations," he said.
Fukuda, 71, is hoping that the visit will improve his government's approval ratings, which have tumbled to below 20 percent due to domestic issues.
"When I visited your country at the end of last year, I said that I wanted this year to be a leap forward in the Japan-China relationship and your visit is impetus for that," Fukuda said.
He added: "I'm grateful for your offer of lending a pair of giant pandas."
China has long pursued "panda diplomacy," lending or gifting the crowd-pleasing but endangered giant animals as a way to improve relations.
Hu made the proposal during a dinner with Fukuda on Tuesday, according to a statement by the Japanese prime minister's office.
"Giant pandas are very popular among the Japanese, and they are a symbol of the friendly ties between Japan and China," Hu was quoted as saying in the statement.
- AFP /ls
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