Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the start of the Japan-China High-level Economic Dialogue at the foreign ministry's Iikura guest house in Tokyo April 12, 2007. [Reuters]

TOKYO: China and Japan revitalized their high-level economic dialogue Thursday, with Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe being keen to build strategic and mutually beneficial relations.

The dialogue is a big boost to the two countries' economic ties and is seen as one of the highlights of Wen's three-day visit to Japan.

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Wen and Abe co-chaired the inaugural economic dialogue at Japanese Foreign Ministry's Iikura guesthouse and agreed to hold its first session in Beijing later this year.

Wen said the dialogue is to create a forum for the two sides to exchange their economic development strategy and macro-economic policy and enhance mutual understanding.

The move is aimed at coordinating and pushing forward cooperation in the key economic fields of energy, the environment, finance, hi-tech, communication and intellectual property right (IPR) protection, he said.

It will serve as a platform for the two countries to exchange policies on regional and international economic issues and help expand cooperation in wider sectors.

The dialogue is a key mechanism, Wen said, for building strategic and mutually beneficial ties between China and Japan, and it complements already established cooperative mechanisms.

Abe corroborated Wen and underscored the two countries' dependence on each other's economy, calling the dialogue a "new step forward in Japan-China economic ties",

Abe said the two sides have the responsibility of helping resolve global issues, such as climate change, IPR and the WTO's Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations.

There is a need for the top economic leaders of both countries to personally meet and frankly talk to deal with those issues properly.

Wen and Abe appointed Chinese Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, respectively, the co-chairs of the economic dialogue.

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, minister in charge of the State Department and Reform Commission Ma Kai and Commerce Minister Bo Xilai are among the senior officials to join Zeng.

The core members of the Japanese team are Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari, Finance Minister Koji Omi and Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Hiroko Ota.

Before the dialogue, Wen had lunch with businessmen from major Japanese trade and commerce organizations to get more business for the country.

He reiterated China's determination on currency reform and IPR protection and said the government wants to take bilateral economic ties to a new high.

China is Japan's No 1 trading partner, with the two-way trade volume being US$207.3 billion last year. But the volume was only US$1.1 billion 35 years ago, when the two countries normalized relations.