DPJ's Ozawa to visit China at early date

TOKYO, June 23 Kyodo

Japanese opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa accepted Friday a Chinese invitation to visit China at an early date, party officials said.

Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wang Yi asked Ozawa, president of the Democratic Party of Japan, to visit China in July in their meeting at the party headquarters in Tokyo, and the two basically agreed to arrange the schedules, the officials said.

Wang told reporters later that China will welcome Ozawa's visit and wants to continue exchanges between the DPJ and the Chinese Communist Party.

If the visit is realized, Ozawa is expected to meet with Chinese President and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao, who has refused to hold summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi because of the Japanese premier's annual visits to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

Ozawa is expected to use his meeting with Hu to promote Asian diplomacy.

He was earlier reported planning to visit China in late October after he seeks re-election as DPJ president in September.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Kyodo News International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning