Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who will start his four-day visit to China from Thursday, is expected to push Japan-China ties forward, Japan's major newspaper Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial on Thursday.

Fukuda will undoubtedly present his idea for the prospect of Japan- China ties, the editorial said, noting that former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed a mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao described his visit to Japan as an ice-melting tour.

Following Abe's visit to China last Autumn and Wen's Japan tour in April, Chinese President Hu Jintao's trip to Japan has been initially scheduled for next spring. These showed the exchange of visits between leaders of the two countries have been fully resumed, the editorial said.

The editorial noted that Japan and China could not expect to address the pending issues between them all at once though their bilateral ties have improved.

It described the mutual trust between leaders of the two countries as the basis to avert serious friction and to seek diplomatic wisdom for common interests, saying that Fukuda could start from this general point to push for the development of bilateral ties.

Fukuda's speech at Peking University, to be live broadcast in China, will be the first of its kind by a Japanese prime minister since the normalization of ties between the two countries 35 years ago, the editorial said.

The article added that Fukuda should talk candidly about Japan's historic blunder as well as Japan's contribution to China's economy in post-war period to let Chinese people know more about its neighbor.

(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2007)