Japan and China agreed on Saturday to try to improve strained ties and meet soon to discuss a disputed gas field, but the two Asian giants remain at odds over their wartime past, a Japanese official said, according to Reuters. Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura met his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing, after a meeting of Asian and European foreign ministers in the Japanese city of Kyoto. The talks followed last month's summit where Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao pulled ties back from the brink after a rare public apology by Koizumi for suffering caused by Japan's past military aggression. "Overall, there was a very frank exchange of opinions. The overall tone is to continue efforts to improve Japan-China relations based on the Jakarta summit and Foreign Minister Machimura's visit to China," the Japanese official said of the Machimura, Li talks. The two sides agreed to hold discussions later in May on a dispute over gas fields in the East China Sea. --More 2345 Local Time 2045 GMT
