Japan has failed to respond positively to a proposal for a top-level meeting, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

President Hu Jintao last Friday told a Japanese delegation on a goodwill visit that he is ready to hold a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi if he stops his visits to the Yasukuni Shrine that honours war criminals of World War II.

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Hu last met Koizumi in April last year on the sidelines of a regional conference in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Japanese political figures including Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Shinzo Abe, top spokesman in the cabinet and the frontrunner to be the next prime minister rejected Hu's offer, saying that China's "method is beyond comprehension."

"China has made unswerving efforts to make a summit meeting possible, but regretfully, China fails to see a positive response from Japan," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said yesterday.

China's relations with Japan have been chilly in the past year mainly because of Japanese leaders' repeated visits to the war shrine, a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

China attaches great importance to mending the bitterness in Sino-Japanese ties, Liu said, and urged Japan to correct its attitude on historical issues.

Liu reiterated at yesterday's twice-weekly briefing that the responsibility does not lie with the Chinese side or the Japanese people; he blamed Japanese leaders for their insistence on visiting the shrine.

"The visits hurt the feelings of the two peoples and undermine the political basis for bilateral relations," Liu said.

Liu said Sino-Japanese ties face a difficult period, adding that Tokyo needs to be sincere about major historical issues if it wants ties to return to normal and develop further.