Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (R) shakes hands with his South Korean counterpart Ban Ki-moon at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Busan November 15, 2005. [Xinhua]

 BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua/China Daily) -- Leaders of China and Japan will not have any contact during the imminent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting this week, the Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday. 

     Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference that there was no plan for such a bilateral meeting . "We believe the conditions for such a meeting are not in place now," he said.

    Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend the 13th APEC Economic Leaders Informal Meeting to be held in Busan of the Republic of Korea from Nov. 18 to 19.

    In Seoul, Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing and his South Korean counterpart Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to realize how visits to the Yasukuni Shrine a symbol of the country's past militarism rekindle painful memories.

    "Japan's leaders should stop doing things that hurt the feelings of the people of China and numerous Asian countries," Li Zhaoxing told reporters after meeting his ROK counterpart Ban Ki-moon at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Busan.

    "Go ask Europeans how they would feel if a German leader paid homage to the Nazis," said Li, who has declined to have bilateral talks with his Japanese counterpart at the event.

    A senior ROK Foreign Ministry official told reporters Ban agreed with Li that the shrine visits should stop.

    Ban told Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso in a meeting on Monday that Japanese politicians should halt their visits to Yasukuni.

    Meanwhile, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wang Yi said Koizumi's repeated visits to the shrine are a "knotty issue" in Sino-Japanese relations.

    "Only if Japan unties this knot can it expect Sino-Japanese relations to improve, and exchanges of official visits by state leaders be possible," he wrote in a signed article published on Monday in Japan Business News.Enditem