Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Wednesday urged Japan to create conditions for the normal development of bilateral relations.

Hong said at a daily press briefing that he noted that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suggested on Tuesday that a summit between Japan and China is necessary to mend bilateral relations hampered by their recent territorial disputes.

China attaches importance to developing relations with Japan, Hong said, stressing that the country hopes that Japan will make joint efforts with China to overcome major difficulties so as to push bilateral ties back to the track of normal development.

Hong confirmed that Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Tuesday met with Tomiichi Murayama, former Japanese prime minister and honorary advisor to the Japan-China Friendship Association, and the body's chief, Koichi Kato, in Beijing.

Peace, friendship and cooperation between China and Japan are in the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples, Yang said.

He stressed that, at this critical juncture for China-Japan relations, the two sides should properly handle tensions over the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands on the basis of the four political documents signed by the two countries and with an attitude responsible to history.

The Japanese guests said that the Japan-China Friendship Association will actively promote bilateral people-to-people friendly exchanges and create conditions for the improvement of relations between the two countries.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2013)