Japan's Foreign Minister plans fence-mending trip to China

TOKYO, Friday (AFP) - Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Friday he plans to visit China soon in an effort to improve relations which have soured over war-time memories and disputed energy resources.

Japan has proposed to China that Machimura make a visit from late next week, the minister told reporters.

Machimura said he wanted to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing, in what would be their first meeting since a May gathering of Asia-Europe foreign ministers in Kyoto.

The Jiji Press news agency and other media said Machimura hoped to pave the way for a meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Relations between the Asian neighbors have been hit by a series of incidents this year including anti-Japanese protests in China after Tokyo approved a history textbook which Beijing said downplayed Japan's war-time atrocities.

China is also angered by Koizumi's insistence on visiting the Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japanese war dead including convicted war criminals.

The two sides are also embroiled in a diplomatic spat over disputed gas fields in the East China Sea, with a fourth round of talks on the issue due later this month.

China does not recognize a boundary proposed by Japan in the sea. Tensions rose last month after Japan said it had spotted flames indicating China had started production. China began test-drilling in 2003.

Japan says that although China has drilled on its own side of the boundary it could extract Japanese resources by digging underwater. The two countries are among the world's biggest energy importers.