Li said this when being interviewed by Asahi Shimbun and TV Asahi before winding up his eight-day visit to Japan. The chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress returned to Beijing late yesterday after a brief stay at Kagoshima.

There may be problems in bilateral ties in the future, but China has always held that as long as the two countries look far into the future then the Sino-Japanese relationship will develop in a sound and steady manner, Li said.

They should strictly abide by the three guiding documents on bilateral relations and take these problems seriously from the perspective of the overall development of bilateral ties, he added.

The 1972 Sino-Japanese Joint Statement and the 1978 bilateral Treaty of Peace and Friendship said that the two neighbors will not use force to solve their disputes and that Japan agrees to adhere to the one-China policy. They pledged to work for a friendly cooperative partnership of peace and development in the 1998 Sino-Japanese Joint Declaration.

When answering a question about China's rapid economic development, Li denied that it poses a threat to Japan. He said national regeneration has provided Japanese businesses with a lot of opportunities and broad space for cooperation.

China hopes that Japan's economy will get out of its current difficulties soon and Li said this will also be conducive to the further development of trade and economic cooperation between the two neighbors.

Japan has become China's largest trading partner and China is Japan's second largest. Bilateral trade volume registered US$87.7 billion last year.

(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2002)