Japan's House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono indirectly urged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday to stop visiting the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, lawmakers of Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party said.

In a meeting with Koizumi on Japan's deteriorating bilateral ties with China, Kono, a former foreign minister and LDP president, was quoted as telling Koizumi the premier ''should decide (whether to visit the shrine) with utmost caution.''

Koizumi reportedly responded that he believes he has obtained understanding from Chinese President Hu Jintao and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun over his visits to the shrine after offering them explanations.

Kono met with Koizumi to discuss Japan-China relations, which have deteriorated due in part to the premier's visits to the Shinto shrine, and to convey a message he shares with former prime ministers, including Yoshiro Mori, from earlier this month on the Yasukuni issue.

Mori also took part in the meeting between Koizumi and Kono.

It is unusual for a legislative leader to make a request to a prime minister on a diplomatic issue.

''I have decided I only say at present that I will make a decision appropriately,'' Koizumi told reporters after the meeting.

Kono separately told reporters, ''I believe the prime minister understood.''

He also said that Koizumi will hopefully attach a high value on the advice from his predecessors.

Last Wednesday, Kono organized a meeting with the former prime ministers, also including Kiichi Miyazawa, Tomiichi Murayama and Ryutaro Hashimoto, to discuss the effects of Koizumi's Yasukuni visits on Japan's relations with China and South Korea.

Koizumi's annual visits to the shrine have sparked a flurry of condemnation from China and South Korea because they see Yasukuni, which honors Class-A war criminals along with Japan's war dead, as symbolic of unrepentant Japanese militarism.

Koizumi has visited the shrine once a year since taking office in April 2001, and indicated May 16 he would visit it again this year. He last visited the shrine on Jan. 1, 2004.

Source: Agencies