Finance Minister Jin Renqing and his Japanese counterpart Sadakazu Tanigaki held talks Saturday over bilateral, regional and global financial and economic situations, Finance Ministry said.

 

The talks represent the first dialogue between them since the two countries established finance ministers' dialogue mechanism, said the ministry in a statement.

 

Their talks were candid and in-depth, said the ministry.

 

The two ministers have decided to hold their second annual dialogue in Tokyo, Japan, next year.

 

The two ministers made public their willingness to create such mechanism last June during their meeting in Tianjin, north China, on the sidelines of Asian-European finance ministers' meeting.

 

(Xinhua News Agency, March 27, 2006)