Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivers a speech to the Japanese parliament in Tokyo April 12, 2007. Wen made a pitch for new strategic ties with Japan, but also urged Tokyo to live up to its apologies for wartime aggression and never to support Taiwan independence. [Reuters]

China and Japan have reached consensus on forging strategically reciprocal relations between the two nations, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in Japanese Diet (parliament) on Thursday.

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China's aim is to pushing forward Sino-Japanese relations to a new historic stage and realizing the goal of "peaceful coexistence, friendship for generations, mutually-beneficial cooperation and common development," Wen told the Japanese lawmakers.

Premier Wen said his current visit to Japan is aimed at learning the latest developments of Japan and contributing to the improvement and development of bilateral ties.

"I came here this time to observe the state of Japan's latest advancement and to make efforts and contribute to the improvement and development of the China-Japan relationship," Wen told the parliament.

"If Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe's visit to China last October can be described as an ice breaker, then I hope my visit to Japan will be an ice thawer. I came to Japan for friendship and cooperation, " Wen told the Japanese lawmakers.

Wen, making the first visit to Japan by a Chinese premier since 2000, also called Japan's past military invasion of China a "calamity" but said the Chinese people wanted to "exist in friendship with the Japanese people".

"The Japanese invasion of China was a calamity for the Chinese people," Wen said in the speech, delivered against a backdrop of the national flags of the two Asian giants.

But he added, "The Chinese people want to exist in friendship with the Japanese people."

Wen Jiabao arrived Wednesday for a three-day official visit, the first by a Chinese premier since 2000.

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