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BEIJING - China and Japan Saturday played down a bitter territorial dispute and urged North Korea not to "threaten" regional peace in talks between their foreign ministers here, a Japanese official said.
Hirofumi Nakasone and Yang Jiechi, meeting as part of a drive to improve historically testy ties, agreed not to let the row over an energy-rich set of islands overshadow relations.
Both re-stated their positions over the Diaoyu or Senkaku islands, but "they agreed to make an effort so the differences in the two sides' positions do not cast a shadow on overall relations," the official said, according to Japan's Jiji Press.
The two sides also agreed to "continue monitoring the situation and maintain close contact" over nuclear-armed North Korea, which is feared to be planning a provocative missile test.
"North Korea should not carry out any acts that heighten tensions and threaten peace and safety of the region," the official said.
Japan and China are both part of a six-nation forum aimed at convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear programmes, but negotiations have repeatedly stalled.
Pyongyang has also stated its intention to launch a satellite soon, a move that Japan and the United States believe could actually be a long-range missile test for a weapon capable of hitting Alaska.
China, one of North Korea's closest allies and the host of the six-party talks, has made little comment on the subject, which has dominated regional security concerns in recent weeks.
Japanese media also reported that Nakasone expressed concern about China's military build-up, with Yang replying that Beijing was increasing its transparency.
The two also discussed the economic crisis and agreed on the need to fight trade protectionism, Jiji said.
The world's second and third biggest economies are grappling with the global slowdown, with Japan posting a record fall in industrial output in January and China recently announcing that 20 million rural migrants were out of work.
Saturday's meeting comes after tensions flared this week over the Diaoyu archipelago in the East China Sea, where lucrative undersea gas rights are claimed by both China and Japan.
Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso on Thursday fuelled the row when he said Tokyo would ask the United States to help it defend the disputed island chain.
China reacted angrily, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying Beijing had lodged "stern representations" with Japan over the comments.
Nakasone's visit comes as relations between the Asian giants have improved significantly after being overshadowed for a long time by Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China before and during World War II.
China cut high-level contacts with Japan during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi due to his visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which venerates war criminals who invaded China, among 2.5 million Japanese war dead.
Japan's previous prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, who quit in September last year, worked hard to improve ties with China.
- AFP /ls
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