China, Japan leaders agree to improve ties

Japan\'s Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met briefly on the fringes of an Asia-Europe summit and agreed to improve ties after the latest row over an ongoing territorial spat.

"There was an encounter after dinner," on Monday, Noriyuki Shikata, Japanese deputy cabinet secretary for public relations, told AFP.

"They agreed to improve relations, to resume exploring ties."

The two had been tipped for a possible meeting over their ongoing territorial spat over East China Sea islands as both were in Brussels to attend an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) gathering 46 nations.

Asia\'s two largest economies have been embroiled in a tense diplomatic standoff since Japan\'s arrest on September 8 of a Chinese trawler captain near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

According to Japan\'s Kyodo news agency, Kan and Wen agreed that "deterioration in bilateral ties over maritime collisions is not desirable," and decided to "hold high-level bilateral talks on regular basis."

Officials at the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing were not immediately available for comment.

Kyodo said Kan told the Chinese premier that the islands were an "integral part of Japan\'s territory and that no territorial issue exists there."

But Wen stuck to his ground that the islands belonged to Beijing.

"The Diaoyu Islands have been Chinese territory since ancient times," Wen told Kan, China\'s Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua said Wen "pointed out that it serves the fundamental interests of both countries and peoples to protect and advance the China-Japan strategic relationship of mutual benefit."

Japan says their sovereignty dates back to the late 19th century and that Chinese interest in the isles dates to the development of petroleum resources on the East China Sea continental shelf in the late 1970s.

Meanwhile China this weekend called on Japan to "maintain the full spectrum of relations" between the two nations.

The statement by Ma Zhaoxu, chief spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs, came after Kan called on China to behave as a "responsible member of the international community".

The incident began with the arrest of a fisherman for allegedly ramming Japanese coastguard vessels.

He was subsequently released in what was criticised at home as a climbdown by Japan in the face of Chinese pressure, but the war of words continued.

China\'s arrest of four Japanese for allegedly illegally intruding on a military site heightened tensions, although both sides insisted the move was unrelated to the maritime spat.

Three of the four were freed and arrived back in Japan on Friday, although a fourth remains in detention.

In an apparent conciliatory move by Japan, Tokyo this week signalled Kan\'s intention to go to Brussels for the EU-Asia summit in a bid to engineer a meeting with Wen.

Feelings in Japan continue to run high, however, with nationalists staging a rally in Tokyo on Saturday to protest at what they saw as the country\'s "diplomatic defeat" in the trawler incident.