BEIJING: Japan on Saturday invited Chinese President Hu Jintao to make the first state visit by a Chinese head of state in 10 years next spring, another sign of warming relations, an official said.

Foreign Affairs minister Masahiko Komura proposed the date during a meeting in Beijing with his counterpart, Yang Jiechi, said Mitsuo Sakaba, a spokesman for Japan’s foreign ministry.

“We suggested the spring. This is the best season in Japan, the cherry blossom season. It’s the best for the Chinese president’s visit,” he said, adding they had not received word about whether the invitation had been accepted.

However, Yang had accepted Komura’s invitation to visit Japan to lay the groundwork for the president’s visit, Sakaba said.

In 1998, Jiang Zemin became the first Chinese president to visit Japan.

But China cut off all high-level contact with Japan during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi due to his visits to a controversial shrine to war dead.—AFP