Japan PM says wants friendly ties with China

TOKYO, Wednesday (Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Wednesday he would strive to develop friendly ties with China in 2006, after a year in which relations with that country hit their lowest in decades.

Long-chilly relations between Tokyo and Beijing have become fraught this year through disputes over issues mostly relating to Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China in the early 20th century.

Bilateral ties hit their worst level in decades in April, when thousands of Chinese took to the streets in sometimes violent anti-Japan protests. Ties with South Korea have also soured for similar reasons and Koizumi said he would like to mend that fence as well.

"For Japan, China and South Korea are important neighbours and friendly countries," Koizumi told reporters, adding that the development of China and South Korea opens up opportunities for Japan. "From that standpoint, I don't think there is any change on the point of trying to develop friendly relations even if there are various differences in our respective positions."

Japan needs to take steps so China and South Korea would understand such thinking, Koizumi said, adding that he hoped those two countries would do the same.

Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao met in Jakarta on the sidelines of the Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia in April, pulling relations between the two Asian powers back from the brink.

But bilateral ties took another hit in October when Koizumi made his latest visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, where some war criminals are honoured along with Japan's 2.5 million war dead, sparking angry protests from China and South Korea.

Resentment lingers in South Korea over Japan's harsh colonial rule of the Korean peninsula in 1910-1945.

Asked whether he would visit Yasukuni during Japan's New Year's holidays from Jan. 1-3, Koizumi stopped short of giving a direct answer but seemed to play down the possibility. "Please everyone, take time and rest over the New Year. Work starts on the fourth," he said, adding that he had a news conference and a visit to Ise shrine, a separate Shinto shrine, planned on that day.

Koizumi, who says his annual visits to Yasukuni are intended to pay respects to the war dead and to pray for peace, visited Yasukuni on New Year's Day in 2004.

Besides Japan's ties with China and South Korea, another focal point in 2006 is the question of who will emerge as successor to Koizumi.

Koizumi has said he does not intend to stay on as prime minister when his term as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) expires next September. "I think a person who will take over the reform path that I have pushed forward up to now would be desirable," said Koizumi, without mentioning any specific names.

A public opinion poll published on Tuesday showed that Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, known for his tough stance towards China and North Korea, has a huge lead over other contenders to become Japan's next prime minister. Forty-three percent of respondents to a poll by the Nihon Keizai newspaper said Abe was the "most suitable" to become next prime minister..