TOKYO -- Japan and China are working to set up a 24-hour hotline between their armed forces to make emergency contact easier, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun reported in its evening edition on Monday.

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Japan last week on the first visit by a Chinese leader since 2000, and he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to set up a contact system between the militaries of the two Asian giants, the paper added.

According to the Yomiuri, the hotline would aim primarily at preventing incidents such as confrontations between ships and aircraft provoked by intrusions into the other nation's waters or air space.

Official agreement to launch the hotline would be reached at a bilateral meeting of defense officials set for September.

A Defense Ministry spokesman in Tokyo said the issue was being investigated but declined to comment further.

Japan already has a similar agreement with South Korea, but the Yomiuri said that China had yet to establish such a system with any other nation.

Japan and China have sometimes been at odds after intrusions by military vessels or planes into each other's territory.