Japan Pm Meets Hu Jintao, Agrees On China Visit

HONOLULU, Hawaii: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Saturday agreed to visit China this year as he met with President Hu Jintao to discuss the Asian powers' often uneasy relations, officials said.

Meeting with Hu on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Hawaii, Noda accepted an invitation to visit China by the end of the year, said Noriyuki Shikata, a spokesman for the Japanese prime minister.

The trip would be in line with an understanding, reached in 2006 after a rough patch between the countries, to exchange top-level visits each year. Premier Wen Jiabao visited Japan in May for three-way talks with South Korea.

But relations have remained uneasy. China responded furiously after Japan arrested a Chinese trawler captain near disputed islands -- known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China -- in September 2010.

In the talks in Honolulu, Noda asked Hu to move ahead on joint development of gas fields near the islands. The two countries announced an agreement in 2008 but there has been little progress since then.

Hu appeared non-committal. Shikata quoted him as replying, "Let's continue to communicate with each other toward a resumption of negotiations" on the gas fields.

China has argued that the "joint development" is a misnomer as the area is under its sole sovereignty.

The two countries quietly resolved a potential new dispute on Wednesday after Japan freed another Chinese fishing boat captain. The fisherman, who was not arrested near the disputed islands, reportedly paid a fine of about $3,900.

Noda's Democratic Party of Japan, which swept out the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 2009, has largely supported stronger relations with China.

Before taking office in September, Noda made controversial remarks about World War II but he chose South Korea as his first destination for a bilateral visit as he sought to avoid reigniting tensions over historical disputes.