BUSAN (South Korea): A top US diplomat voiced frustration with Japan’s strained relationship with its Asian neighbours, saying Tokyo’s spats over history with China and South Korea could undercut American interests in Asia.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s appearance at the Asia-Pacific Economic (APEC) forum was clouded by the historical animosity he rekindled with his repeated visits to a shrine for war dead where convicted war criminals are also honoured.

Christopher Hill, Assistant US Secretary of State, told university students from APEC countries on Saturday that the chill between American ally Japan and its neighbours had gone on long enough.

“We want Japan to have a good relationship with China,” he said. “And it’s a little frustrating to us, to the US, how bad the relationship has become between Japan and China over these historical issues.”

Hill said that while the United States has a deepening relationship with Japan, Tokyo’s strained relationship with its neighbours could spell trouble for Washington as well.

“It doesn’t help us that when we have relations with Japan, people think, ‘aha, that’s an anti-Chinese move’,” he added. “That’s not in our interest.

“So we would like to see that situation between Japan and China, and Japan and Korea, calm down.”

In unusually blunt words, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told Koizumi during a meeting on Friday on the sidelines of APEC that Seoul was not interested in more apologies, but wanted to see visits to Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni shrine cease.

China rebuffed Japanese overtures for a bilateral summit during APEC and Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing compared Koizumi’s Yasukuni homages to a German leader’s paying tribute to the Nazis.

Recent comments by US President George W. Bush have also indicated that Washington preferred to see Tokyo mend its frayed ties with Beijing and Seoul.

Roh and Chinese President Hu Jintao raised the pressure this week by saying that “a neighbouring country” — clearly Japan — had damaged friendship in the region by failing to own up fully to its past.

Japan’s ties with China and South Korea have worsened since Koizumi took office in 2001 and began visits to Yasukuni, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.

At APEC, Koizumi has asserted that despite political friction, he felt relations with China and South Korea were good.

On Friday, though, he didn’t rule out paying another visit to Yasukuni before his term as prime minister expires next September, telling reporters that he would judge “appropriately.”—Reuters