China says Japan must show "deep remorse" before dialogue resumes

BEIJING, Friday (AFP) - China rebuked Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's defense of his controversial visits to a war shrine, saying he must show "deep remorse" before bilateral dialogue can resume.

"We support the enhanced exchanges and cooperation between China and Japan... but normal exchanges and cooperation between the two countries need a sound political environment and conditions," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

"We hope that Japan can have a correct understanding of history... take serious consideration of Chinese people's feelings... and have deep remorse of its history so that it can create conditions for the smooth, healthy, development of relations and the improvement of relations."

In his first press conference of the new year on Wednesday, Koizumi said his visit to the Yasukuni shrine, which honours Japanese war dead including 14 top war criminals, should not stop China and South Korea from holding high level dialogue with Japan.

"Because of this one issue (the shrine visits), China and South Korea must not shut down efforts to hold summit-level talks nor close channels for dialogue," Koizumi said.

But Qin insisted at a regular briefing that Koizumi could not simply brush aside his shrine visits and expect relations to continue normally.

"We should not let it happen that someone who makes wrongful actions, harms the feelings of people in other countries, and destroys the political foundation of bilateral relations pretends nothing has happened and that everything is as it was before," Qin said.

"We hope the Japanese side can recognize this." Using a traditional Chinese saying, Qin said the responsibility for repairing damaged relations lay with Koizumi.

"There's an old saying in China: Whoever makes a knot should untie the knot," Qin said.