Beijing - China on Tuesday praised the "great contribution" to improving bilateral relations by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who resigned on Monday.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Fukuda's resignation was an "internal affair of Japan" but said ties had improved significantly between the two nations during his 11 months in office.

"Recently, through the joint efforts of two governments and people from all circles, China-Japan relations have witnessed good development, with deepening strategic cooperative relations," Jiang told reporters.

"The prime minister (Fukuda) has made a great contribution to it," she said. "We think highly of him."

Tokyo - Japanese automaker Hino Motors Ltd and major trading company Marubeni Corp announced a joint venture Tuesday to sell vehicles in India.

Tokyo - Taro Aso, general secretary of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and former contender for the LDP helm, Tuesday expressed his intention to run for the party leadership in a bid to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

"I have an idea of what I have to do, and I'd like to execute it," Aso said at a press conference Tuesday.

The 67-year-old hawkish politician was seen as a forerunner to succeed Fukuda when he was appointed as the premier's right-hand man last month in a Cabinet reshuffle.

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks opened slightly higher Tuesday, but gains were limited due to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's sudden resignation announcement the previous day.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 63.11 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 12,897.29.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 8.1 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 1,238.74.

On currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar was quoted at 108.05-10 yen, up from Monday's 5 pm quote of 107.71-73 yen.

Tokyo - Major Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corporation allegedly failed to report some 4.2 billion yen (38.62 million dollars) in tariffs on pork imports from Denmark, local media reports said Monday.

Mitsubishi allegedly reported paying more than the actual price in order to evade paying tariffs in 2005.

The government imposes tariffs on the difference in price between domestic products and imports, when the price of imported pork is lower than the standard of 524 yen per kilogram.