TOKYO, Sept 26: Outspoken conservative Shinzo Abe took office on Tuesday as Japan’s youngest prime minister, pledging to repair strained ties with China and advance the alliance with the United States.

With a reputation as a foreign policy hawk but vague on the economy, Mr Abe, 52, filled his first cabinet with trusted hands after the departure of veteran premier Junichiro Koizumi, who remains popular.

Mr Abe bowed four times to his fellow lawmakers after he was voted into office in a party-line parliamentary vote. He and his cabinet were later ceremonially received by Emperor Akihito.

“As the first premier born after the war, I will lead firmly in the right direction. I will make Japan a country full of chances, kindness and dynamism. I will begin creating a new country,” Mr Abe told a televised news conference.

Mr Abe has vowed to rewrite the US-imposed 1947 constitution, under which Tokyo renounced the right to a military, and has been outspoken in his reading of the country’s past, a strained subject among nations that suffered under Japanese imperialism.

But Mr Abe promised to “make efforts” to resume talks with China.

“A peacefully developing China is the most important country for Japan,” Mr Abe said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao refused to meet Koizumi because of the latter’s repeated visits to a war shrine linked to Japan’s militarist past.

“In many senses, it was Koizumi and Hu Jintao who could not get along. But now we have a new prime minister, Abe, so as foreign minister I will make efforts to arrange a meeting between Abe and Hu Jintao,” said Taro Aso, who kept his job as top diplomat.

Mr Aso said the summit may take place on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific forum in Vietnam in November.—AFP