Koizumi has not visited Beijing since 2001, and although he has met Chinese leaders at international meetings, Beijing has refused two-way talks since April last year.

Neither has he held a summit South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun since visiting Seoul in June 2005.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China was ready to mend fences with the new Japanese leader.

"Now the pressing task is to remove as quickly as possible the political obstacles to restoring and developing in a normal way relations between our two countries," Qin told a news conference.

"We're willing to work with the other side in returning relations to healthy development."

But Hisahiko Okazaki, a former diplomat close to Abe, said this week that a summit would not resolve substantive feuds, such as one over the development of gas fields in disputed parts of the East China Sea or Tokyo's concerns about China's military build-up.

"It's symbolic. A Chinese gesture is symbolic to start with, so a meeting is symbolic," he said.

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