Chinese foreign minister in Japan ahead of President Hu

Thu Apr 17, 2:51 AM ET

TOKYO (AFP) - China's foreign minister arrived here on Thursday to lay the groundwork for a visit by President Hu Jintao, with Japan set to raise concerns about Tibet, food standards and a simmering gas fields row.

Hu is expected to travel to Japan next month, in what will be the first visit by a Chinese head of state in a decade, and only the second ever.

But while once-icy relations between the two Asian neighbours have thawed recently, the visit could be clouded by the issue of Tibet, with Japan calling for Beijing to resolve the problem peacefully.

Foreign minister Yang Jiechi will meet his Japanese counterpart Masahiko Komura later Thursday to discuss "a few issues of concerns" including China's response to the recent unrest in Tibet, a senior foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

A recent food poisoning scare involving dumplings imported from China and a long-standing territorial dispute over gas fields in the East China Sea are also expected to be on the agenda, he said.

Violence erupted in Tibet on March 14 after protests days earlier to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule in the Himalayan region.

Exiled Tibetan leaders say more than 150 people have been killed in a Chinese crackdown on the unrest. The Chinese government says that Tibetan "rioters" killed 20 people.

A senior lawmaker in Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday met with Hu in Beijing and called for the disclosure of information on the Chinese authorities' response to the riots in Lhasa, Japanese media reported.

Since taking office in September, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has tried to further ease strains in relations between the Asian powers which hit rock bottom just a few years ago. Yang is due to meet Fukuda on Friday.

China refused all high-level contact with Japan during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi due to his annual visits to a shrine that venerates Japanese war dead including war criminals.