To improve the bilateral relationship that was recently strained, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Friday he will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Santiago, Chile, on Sunday. "I will raise the issue (of a Chinese submarine's intrusion into Japanese territorial waters last week) during the talks, because this incident should not be the obstacle for the improvement of the Japan-China relationship," Koizumi told reporters. It will be the first Japan-China summit since October 2003. The relationship between China and Japan has recently become strained due to several issues. China became upset when Koizumi made repeated visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine, while Japan is angry about a series of incidents in which Chinese vessels have entered Japanese territorial waters without prior notice, including the latest incident last week. A submarine entered between Ishigaki and Miyako islands in Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa on November 10, traveling inside Japanese territorial waters for about two hours without surfacing, as required by international law. Once detected, the government tracked the underwater vessel with P-3C patrol planes. --more 1345 Local Time 1045 GMT
