TOKYO - China will seek to improve sour ties with Japan by seizing the opportunity of the change in premiership later this month, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei has been quoted as saying.

"We want to use the power change as an opportunity. We hope (Japan) will act accordingly once a new cabinet is formed," Wu told Japan's Jiji Press news agency in an interview in Beijing.

China has refused summits with outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi due primarily to his visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead and 14 top war criminals.

Koizumi's most likely successor is Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, who has visited the Shinto shrine in the past but repeatedly refused to say if he would go as premier.

Wu said "a tough phase will continue" if Koizumi's successor visits the shrine, seen by China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan's wartime aggression.

Lawmakers of the Liberal Democratic Party will vote on September 20 on the successor to Koizumi, who is retiring after more than five years in office despite continued popularity at home.

Koizumi last visited the Yasukuni shrine on August 15, the emotionally charged anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender, and denounced China's criticism of the pilgrimage as "immature."

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