The leaders of China and Japan agreed to mend ruptured ties during ice-breaking talks in Jakarta on Saturday, although Chinese President Hu Jintao said Japan needed to learn from its wartime past. The talks came a day after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made an unusually public apology for Japan's past atrocities in Asia during a summit of Asian and African leaders in the Indonesian capital.
Ties between the Asian giants had deteriorated to their worst since the normalisation of relations in 1972, putting at risk economic links worth $212 billion in annual trade.
"If the appearance of serious problems in Sino-Japanese relations is not handled properly ... not only will it be detrimental to China and Japan, but it will also affect the stability and development of Asia," Hu told reporters.
"Remorse expressed for the war of aggression should be translated into action. "(Japan) should never do anything again that would hurt the feelings of the Chinese people or the people of other Asian countries."
Koizumi said he had frank and meaningful exchange with Hu, adding the two had agreed not to debate Japan's wartime history or visits by Japanese politicians to a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, both sources of much of the friction.
"We were able to confirm at the meeting that rather than criticising each other's past shortcomings and aggravating antagonistic feelings, we should make efforts to develop the bilateral friendship," Koizumi told a news conference after the one-hour talks.
"The Japan-China friendship is beneficial not only for the two countries but also for Asia and the international community."
Hu said differences between the countries needed to be resolved through dialogue. Japan also needed to meet its commitments not to support the independence of Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province, Hu added.
There have been violent anti-Japan demonstrations in China over school history textbooks that critics say sugar-coat its wartime history and over other irritants, including Tokyo's campaign for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Beijing says 35 million Chinese were killed or wounded during Japan's 1931-45 occupation of much of the country.
The two shook hands as they met in a ballroom, Koizumi using both hands but appearing relaxed while Hu was stiff and expressionless. When they sat opposite each other at a long table, Koizumi told Hu about his trip earlier in the day to the tsunami-hit province of Aceh.
"I went to Aceh province today ... I saw that a roof of a two-storey building had been destroyed by the tsunami and realised how tall the waves were," Koizumi said before reporters were ushered out of the room.
PUBLIC APOLOGY: On Friday, Koizumi apologised in a speech before 100 Asian and African leaders, including Hu, for the "tremendous damage and suffering" caused by Japan's wartime past.
Asked earlier about Chinese government comments that action was more important than words, Koizumi, speaking in Aceh, said:
"In the last 60 years we have became an economic superpower and not a military state. (We are a) peaceful nation reflecting on the experience of the war."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, also in Jakarta for the Asia-Africa gathering, said he was delighted Koizumi and Hu would meet and hoped it would reduce the "temperature".
Koizumi's apology had helped, he said. "The statement by Mr Koizumi, I believe, has been well received not only here but I think around the world and I think it has also set the stage appropriately for (their) meeting," Annan told a news conference.