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TimesOfIndia: 'Chinese President agrees to visit Japan next year'

4 Dec 2007, 0538 hrs IST,AFP

BEIJING: China's President Hu Jintao has accepted an invitation to visit Japan in early 2008, which would mark the first visit by a Chinese head of state in a decade, a Japanese spokesman said on Monday.

The invitation was extended over the weekend by visiting Japanese foreign Minister Masahiko Komura amid dramatically improving ties between the two long-time rivals.

"President Hu Jintao expressed his wish to visit Japan sometime early next year," Japan's foreign ministry spokesman Mitsuo Sakaba said.

Hu made the statement during a meeting with Komura on Monday, the spokesman said.

Komura's audience with Hu came after the two sides, on Sunday, wrapped up the largest high-level bilateral meeting between the Asian power since they re-established diplomatic ties in 1972.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chinese_President_agrees_to_visit_Japan_next_year/articleshow/2593482.cms