'New Japan PM to visit China'

Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan has accepted an invitation from his counterpart in Beijing to visit China, a report said today.

Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan has accepted an invitation from his counterpart in Beijing to visit China, a report said on Sunday.

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, during a teleconference with Kan, invited the Japanese prime minister to visit China at a "convenient time," Kyodo news agency reported, quoting China's foreign ministry in Beijing.

The report said the pair also discussed the March sinking of a South Korean warship by a North Korean torpedo.

Kan, 63, Tuesday became Japan's fifth prime minister in four years after his predecessor Yukio Hatoyama quit over a row about a US air base.

Kan has been praised in Beijing as someone who "has repeatedly stressed the great importance of developing Sino-Japanese relations, and we appreciate that."