TOKYO, April 12: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao offered Japan the hand of friendship on Thursday in a call to put aside bitter memories of the past that have hobbled relations between the two Asian giants.

In the first address for 22 years by a Chinese leader to the parliament in Tokyo, Wen urged Japan not to forget its past but acknowledged its people had also been the victims of war.

Earlier, he took his fence-mending visit to Japan to the streets, going for a jog around a Tokyo park and chatting with members of the public.

In parliament, the flags of the two countries mounted on the podium behind, Wen called on the two powers to look to the future.

“The Chinese public must foster friendship with Japanese people,” he said, and laid the blame for Japan's invasion and 1931-1945 occupation of China -- a running sore for many Chinese -- on a “limited number” of wartime leaders.

“As the Chinese leaders of the past generations have said, the responsibility for the war of aggression should rest with a limited number of militarists.” “The general Japanese public were also victims of the war,” added Wen, who is making the first visit here by a Chinese leader in seven years.

Relations between Asia's two largest economies were badly strained during the 2001-2006 premiership of Japan's Junichiro Koizumi, who repeatedly visited a war shrine that Beijing and Seoul associate with imperialism.

Just days after Koizumi left office, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe -- who made his career as a hardliner on emotive history issues -- travelled to Beijing in October.

Wen, who met Abe on Wednesday for dinner of sushi and Japanese beef, said that while the Japanese premier's visit to Beijing broke the ice, he aimed to “melt” the ice with this trip to Tokyo.

Wen also called for the two countries to peacefully resolve one of their most intractable rows -- a dispute over gas fields in the East China Sea. But China quickly reiterated there was no change in its territorial claims.

And in a possible warning to Abe not to visit the Yasukuni shrine, Wen said he expected Japan to continue to show regret for the past.

“Japanese leaders have expressed their views on history time and time again. They admitted the invasion and expressed their deep regret and apologies to the countries that fell victim,” he said.

“The Chinese government and the public appreciate that profoundly. We hope Japan will turn the expression into action as promised.”—AFP