Tokyo - Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao met Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda Wednesday in summit talks that were expected to address long-disputed oil and gas rights in the East China Sea as well as climate change and food poisoning caused by China-made frozen dumplings.

As the first Chinese head of state to visit Japan in a decade, Hu also met Wednesday with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at their Tokyo palace.

But the main purpose of Hu's five-day visit was to strengthen "strategic and mutually beneficial relations" and continue thawing ties that froze in 2005 over then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals from World War II, during which Japan occupied China.

Fukuda and Hu, who arrived in Tokyo Tuesday, were to issue a joint statement, which would be the fourth document the two nations would sign since their relations were normalized in 1972.

Japan and China were also expected to issue a statement on climate change to meet Japan's proposal to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The statement was to mention China's effort to halve its carbon dioxide emissions as Japan plans to encourage the emerging economy to "more positively respond to and actively participate" in the global challenge posed by climate change by providing technology and other know-how on energy efficiency. (dpa)