Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday that he would not visit the Yasukuni Shrine this year, but confirmed the routine annual visit next year.

"I paid a visit in January, so I have no plan to go there again this year. I will visit the shrine next year," Jiji News quoted the premier as saying.

Among his 17 ministers, nine, including Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda and Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba, have said they would not pay the controversial pilgrimage, Jiji said.

The Yasukuni shrine honors 14 Class-A World War II criminals along with Japanese war dead since the mid-19th century.

Japanese government officials and parliament members usually visit the shine on Aug. 15, the day then Emperor Hiroito announced surrender of Japan in 1945.

Koizumi, who vowed to practice the visit every year, made his fourth visit on Jan. 1. His visits to the shrine drew strong protests from Asian countries that had suffered from military invasions by the Japanese army.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2004)