Foreign ministers of China and Japan will meet on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) Regional Forum in Malaysia, Foreign Ministry sources said yesterday.

Li Zhaoxing of China will hold bilateral consultations with Japanese counterpart Taro Aso tomorrow in Kuala Lumpur, where both will attend the two-day foreign ministers' meeting among the ASEAN members and China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) starting today, according to the Foreign Ministry spokesman's office.

They will discuss Sino-Japanese relations and regional issues, including the Northeast Asian situation, the sources said.

This is the second meeting between the foreign ministers within two months, and analysts say that fact sends the message that China and Japan hope to maintain contact and mend bilateral ties. Their last meeting took place in Qatar on the sidelines of the Asia Co-operation Dialogue Conference in May.

Another positive sign is that the two countries also met for security talks on Friday, agreeing to have more defence exchanges.

Relations between China and Japan have soured since Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi began in 2001 visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's war dead, including 14 Class-A war criminals in World War II, are honoured.

At that point, the leaders of the two countries halted exchange visits.

Other problems in Sino-Japanese relations include a dispute over natural gas exploration in the East China Sea. China and Japan held the sixth round of the East China Sea talks in Beijing early this month, but great differences remain.

The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula will be a focal point of the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting, ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying.

Foreign Minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Paek Nam-sun has confirmed his attendance at the ASEAN Regional Forum. Also attending will be US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The security conference, the region's biggest involving 25 countries and the European Union, is held annually by ASEAN.

It has been suggested that the ministers use the opportunity to sit together for the stalled Six-Party Talks, which involve the United States, the DPRK, the ROK, China, Russia and Japan with an aim at getting the DPRK to give up its nuclear programme in return for aid, trade and security guarantees.

Pyongyong has boycotted the talks since last November, accusing the United States of imposing economic sanctions for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

The United States and the ROK proposed to hold five-nation discussions on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting to figure out a way to draw the DPRK back to the table.

At the China-Japan security talks last week, Li Zhaoxing indicated Beijing was against holding talks without Pyongyang, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported. Li told a senior Japanese diplomat that the foreign ministers of all six countries involved should meet on the sidelines of the ASEAN forum, the report said.

Source: China Daily