SEOUL - SOUTH Korea said on Tuesday it is seeking a 'close cooperative relationship' with Japan, after years of prickly ties, but no date has been fixed for a visit by Prime Minister Taro Aso.

Japanese media reports said on Monday that Mr Aso would visit South Korea next month for the first time as prime minister, in another step aimed at easing longstanding tensions between the neighbours.

Mr Aso, who took office in September, hopes to go some time between Jan 10 and 12, Jiji Press and the Yomiuri Shimbun said, Both countries are 'now maintaining a close cooperative relationship' as reaffirmed at a trilateral summit in Japan on Dec 13, said Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-Young.

He said President Lee Myung-Bak had invited Aso during the summit, which also involved China, and Aso had promised to come to Korea soon. But no date had been fixed so far.

For several years until 2006 China and South Korea refused high-level meetings with Japan over disputes related to its aggression in Asia in the first half of the 20th century.

Japan imposed harsh colonial rule over Korea from 1910-45.

Mr Lee agreed in February to resume annual visits between the two countries, but tensions flared later over Japan's territorial claims on islets administered by Seoul. -- AFP