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Top diplomats from Japan and China planning first full summit since 2001

Top diplomats from Japan and China met yesterday, building momentum to organize the nations' first meeting between top leaders in more than a year and repair ties badly frayed by a dispute over Japan's colonial past.

The talks come as Japan's parliament is expected to elect Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe as prime minister today.

China has refused since last year to meet with outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi over his repeated visits to a war shrine linked to Japan's past militarism, plunging bilateral relations to their lowest point in decades.

Abe, while harboring firm views on foreign policy, is pressing behind the scenes for the first meeting between a Japanese prime minister and a Chinese president since April last year. The two have not had a full summit since 2001.

Yesterday, Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso was scheduled to meet with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo in Tokyo, following vice-ministerial talks between Dai and his Japanese counterpart, Shotaro Yachi.

The vice-ministerial talks began on Saturday to discuss issues including resuming leadership summits under Abe. Japanese officials, however, have refused to discuss the talks in detail.

The two sides made little progress on Saturday, when Dai and Yachi only agreed to continue talks.

On Sunday, Abe's senior advisor Hidenao Nakagawa, who was yesterday tapped as a new ruling party secretary general, said Japan would "do its best" to arrange a meeting between Abe and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Such a meeting would be a breakthrough for the two Asian powers, who are at odds politically despite flourishing business ties.

Abe was reported as saying he hopes to meet with Hu in Hanoi in November on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.

The two countries are also sparring over territorial and resource disputes and Japan's military alliance with the US.

Abe scored a landslide victory in elections for the LDP presidency last week, a post that virtually guarantees he will become prime minister when parliament picks Koizumi's successor today.

Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors executed war criminals among millions of Japanese war dead, became the target of criticism from China and other nations that believe Japan's leaders haven't fully atoned for the country's atrocities in Asia in most of the first half of 1900s.

Abe also has visited the shrine regularly, including the reported most recent visit in April, but he has refused to disclose any plans about a future possible visit as prime minister.
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