TOKYO: China and Japan must strengthen understanding and rebuild mutual trust to overcome the current difficulties plaguing their relations, said the Chinese ambassador to Japan yesterday.

Ambassador Wang Yi's call for fresh efforts at improving ties came at the opening of the Second Beijing-Tokyo Forum.

About 90 officials and scholars from China and Japan are taking part in the two-day event, looking for ways to defrost the icy bilateral relations.

Improving Sino-Japanese relations has become a common aspiration for people in both countries, said Wang.

The souring of relations between Beijing and Tokyo owes much to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine, where convicted World War II war criminals are honoured along with Japanese war dead.

His visits, which began shortly after he took office in 2001, have led to top leaders of the neighbouring countries halting visits for the past five years.

China insists the shrine visits have undermined the political basis for bilateral relations and pose a big obstacle to improved ties.