South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon also told Koizumi that his pilgrimages to the Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are honoured alongside Japan's war dead, would threaten regional order.

''I conveyed our government's position that the prime minister's visits to the Yasukuni shrine are deplorable and he should stop visiting the shrine,'' Ban told reporters after holding talks with Koizumi.

South Korea, North Korea and China all protested over last week's visit by Koizumi to the Tokyo shrine, seeing it as his refusal to repent for the country's militarist past.

''Visits to the Yasukuni shrine by Prime Minister Koizumi are unfavourable not only for cooperative ties between South Korea and Japan but also for order and the future of East Asia,'' Ban said.

Visits by government figures to Yasukuni are guaranteed to enrage Japan's neighbours. Older Koreans have bitter memories of Japan's brutal 1910-1945 colonial rule, while Chinese have not forgotten its 1931-45 invasion and occupation of parts of China.

During the years it controlled the Korean peninsula, Imperial Japan forced Koreans to take Japanese names, banned the use of the Korean language and drafted tens of thousands of Korean women to provide sex for its army.

''Japan and South Korea are close to each other and our relations must develop in a forward-looking way,'' Ban said. ''In order to develop in such a way, political leaders should recognise history correctly and cooperate.'' KOIZUMI STAYS COOL Ban said Koizumi had explained Japan's position on his shrine visits.

Ban's initial reaction to Koizumi's visit had been to say he thought it inappropriate to go ahead with his trip to Japan. He later reversed that position, but said on Wednesday that Seoul was considering scaling back ties with Tokyo.

''His visits to Yasukuni shrine trample on the feelings of the Korean people,'' Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura quoted Ban as saying yesterday.

Ban said Koizumi had proposed to have a summit meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the South Korean port city of Pusan next month.

Japan and South Korea are among powers taking part in six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes. Pyongyang has pledged to dismantle those programmes in return for aid and better ties with Washington and Tokyo.

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