Chinese President Hu Jintao will Saturday visit the sights of Japan's ancient capital of Nara, wrapping up his five-day tour aimed at mending strained ties.

On the final day of his trip, only the second visit ever by a Chinese head of state to the country, Hu is due to visit the Toshodaiji Temple, a revered Buddhist temple built by Chinese monk Ganjin in 759 when the city was Japan's capital.

The choice of Nara is seen as a bid to remember times when bilateral relations were amicable, unlike the two countries' tortured recent history tainted by Japan's militarism before and during World War II.

"If you look at the old days, you might find a clue as to how we pursue 'the mutually beneficial strategic partnership,'" Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday at a dinner with Hu, referring to his visit to Nara Saturday.

"Japan and China are learning together, helping each other, connecting to and contributing to the region and the international community. Such two countries can never be those which seek hierarchy," Fukuda said.

Hu is also to visit the Horyuji Temple, the world's oldest surviving wooden structure, which was built more than 1,300 years ago, the remains of an ancient palace, and the headquarters of Japanese electronics maker Matsushita Electric Industrial in Osaka, before heading home.

The two leaders on Wednesday agreed to start regular summits to ease decades of tension coloured by Japan's brutal invasion of China, and pledged that Asia's two largest economies would not see each other as a threat.

During his stay in Japan this week, Hu has not been short on friendly gestures, offering to lend two giant pandas to a Japanese zoo and shedding his jacket and glasses to show off his table tennis prowess.

The Chinese president has repeated conciliatory remarks aimed at improving ties, praising Japan's "peaceful" role in world affairs and voicing gratitude for Japan's decades of low-interest loans to China since the end of World War II.

This new spirit of friendship makes a stark contrast to the atmosphere just a few years ago.

Jiang Zemin, the only other Chinese president to come to Japan, publicly berated his hosts on his 1998 visit for not offering a stronger apology over the past, foreshadowing a decade of tension between Asia's two largest economic powers.

China broke off high-level dialogue with Japan during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, citing his insistence on visiting a shrine that venerates Japanese war dead including war criminals.

For his part, Fukuda, a long-time advocate of stronger ties with Asia, has also worked to improve Japan's relationship with China and is impressed with Hu.

"I received an impression that he is a very sincere individual," Fukuda said Friday in an interview with China Central Television, according to Jiji Press.

"I think he is a very good person to work with."

But despite the optimism surrounding improved ties, progress in resolving specific disputes seems slow, including over lucrative gas fields in the East China Sea, even though Fukuda said the two countries believed "a solution is in sight."

And China's clampdown in Tibet has overshadowed Hu's visit, with thousands of protesters demonstrating in Tokyo on his arrival Tuesday. On Thursday, more than 100 protesters waved Tibetan flags on the university campus where Hu gave a speech.

Tibet's government-in-exile says more than 200 people have been killed in the Chinese crackdown. China denies this and instead blames Tibetan "rioters" and "insurgents" for killing 21 people.

Fukuda said he raised the Tibet issue with Hu. Japan also said that China had agreed to a resumption of a regular dialogue on human rights, which had been suspended since 2000.

PHOTO CAPTION:

Chinese President Hu Jintao welcomed in Japan

AFP