Five Japanese former prime ministers and House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono on Wednesday reached an agreement urging Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to halt his visits to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine in order to avoid further worsening relations with China, Kyodo News reported.

Kono, in a rare move for a legislative leader, took the initiative of organizing the call from eight former prime ministers for Koizumi to effectively stop visiting the Tokyo-based shrine, which honors 14 Class-A war criminals and is regarded as symbolic of Japan's militarist aggression war against Asian neighbors.

Kiichi Miyazawa, Tomiichi Murayama, Ryutaro Hashimoto, Yoshiro Mori and Toshiki Kaifu all agreed on the issue in a gathering at the lower house speaker's official residence, according to Kyodo.

Yasuhiro Nakasone, Morihiro Hosokawa and Tsutomu Hata, who were unable to attend Wednesday, also expressed similar opinions to Kono prior to the meeting, Kyodo said.

Kono, a former foreign minister and Koizumi's predecessor as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, will convey the result of the meeting to Koizumi soon.

At a press conference, meanwhile, New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki reiterated his call for Koizumi to stop visiting Yasukuni and warned that continued visits would adversely affect the coalition.

Kanzaki said that if Koizumi visits the shrine again this year, "it will have an adverse effect on the coalition's foundations."

Koizumi later in the day dismissed his predecessors' call that he should halt his visits to the Tokyo-based shrine, as well as a similar warning from the leader of the New Komeito party, the coalition partner of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

"This is nothing new," Koizumi told reporters at his office. "I have heard these opinions individually," he said.

In spite of strong protests from China and other Asian countries, Koizumi has paid four visits to the shrine since he took office in April 2001, with the latest one on New Year's Day in 2004.

Source: Xinhua