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 a sustained push by Asia’s two dominant powers to put a history of war and distrust behind them.

“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 an audience on Monday with Komura, the spokesman said.

The invitation to Hu came after the two sides held over the weekend the largest high-level bilateral meeting between the Asian powers since they re-established diplomatic ties in 1972.—AFP