China and Japan today agreed on steps to ease military tension between the Asian neighbours and resuumed talks on jointly exploring disputed gas fields in seas bewteen them.
The two countries agreed to set up an emergency hotline and set in place ways to prevent maritime friction sparked by Beijing's growing naval reach from getting out of hand.
The hotline between Beijing and Tokyo would allow leaders to discuss quickly what China's Premier Wen Jiabao called "important issues" between the two nations, a Japanese government official said to Reuters.
Tokyo lodged a protest with Beijing in April after a Chinese helicopter flew near a Japanese destroyer in waters off Okinawa.
A group of Chinese warships was spotted earlier that month in the high seas near Okinawa. Beijing said the ships were in the area training and violated no international law.
Wen later told Japanese business executives the huge economic flows between the two nations, with bilateral trade worth $238.7 billion last year, would cement closer ties.
"China and Japan have very close economic and trade ties. One could say they are at the point where neither could do without the other," said Wen.
The two nations have also argued over China's exploration for natural gas in the East China Sea, in areas Japan says could impinge on gas fields in its maritime jurisdiction.
In June 2008, they struck a broad agreement intended to solve the row by jointly developing the fields. Informal talks have recently started, but progress has been slow.
Wen and Hatoyama agreed to start formal negotiations on the issue as soon as possible.
The official said that was a step forward, since China has long said the environment was not ripe for such talks.
For Hatoyama, the visit comes amid domestic gloom, since many voters have grown disenchanted with his government, and it may act as a reminder that China could soon displace Japan as the world's second-biggest economy after the United States.
Wen's visit to Japan, which began on Sunday, has brought no shift in China's position on North Korea.
China shares long-standing bonds with its communist neighbour North Korea and Beijing has been noncommittal about whether Pyongyang was behind the sinking of South Korea's Cheonan corvette on 26 March, which killed 46 sailors.
Hatoyama has firmly backed the findings of a multinational investigation that blamed North Korea for torpedoing the ship, and agrees with Seoul that the UN Security Council should censure Pyongyang.