Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is to visit Japan in April and both countries should work to make the visit a complete success, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said Thursday.

Li made the remark during his meeting with Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Yachi Shotaro, who was heading the Japanese delegation to the 7th round of strategic dialogue between China and Japan.

"This year marks the 35th anniversary of normalization of China-Japan diplomatic ties, and Premier Wen Jiabao will pay an official visit to Japan in April," Li said. "This provides an important opportunity for advancing bilateral ties, and both sides should work for a complete success of the visit and for long-term, sound and stable progress of bilateral ties."

The foreign minister also noted that this year was also politically sensitive for China-Japan relations, and he urged Japan to observe the principles of the three China-Japan political documents and properly solve the "sensitive" issues so as to maintain the momentum of improvement and growth of bilateral ties.

Source: Xinhua