TOKYO - JAPANESE leader Taro Aso this weekend pays his first visit as premier to South Korea, hoping to sidestep long-running tensions and cooperate on North Korea and Afghanistan.

Mr Aso, who took office in September, will hold talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak as both leaders struggle to win public support and fight back against their domestic opposition.

The conservative Japanese leader flies to Seoul on Sunday and will be accompanied by a delegation of 15 business leaders including Canon chief Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the powerful Japan Business Federation.

Mr Aso and Mr Lee are expected on Monday to discuss the global financial crisis as well as a deadlock in negotiations to get neighbouring North Korea to end its nuclear weapons drive, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

He said the two leaders will also talk about cooperation in Afghanistan, where the Asian economic powers are both looking at expanding reconstruction aid.

'The summit is aimed at bolstering a forward-looking relationship and what can be described as a 'mature partnership' between Japan and South Korea,' said the ministry's Deputy Press Secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura.

But Mr Aso's visit to Seoul comes as a long-running territorial row erupts again over Japan's claim to four uninhabited islands in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) administered by Seoul.

Japan said earlier this week that it will try to develop its capacity to extract badly needed energy resources such as oil and gas in its seabed, eying test exploration by the 2018 fiscal year.

The South Korean foreign ministry said it has delivered a message asking Japan to avoid any research projects around the rocky islets, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japan.

South Korea, which suffered under harsh Japanese colonial rule from 1910-45, has constantly protested against a Japanese publicity campaign laying claim to the islands, which lie near rich fishing grounds.

But Mr Aso and Mr Lee will likely avoid touching upon the sensitive territorial issue during the summit, said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, professor of international politics at Aoyama Gakuin University.

'The number one goal of the visit is to show the two countries are moving forward to cultivate better relations,' Prof Yamamoto said. 'The best solution for the territorial dispute for now is for both parties to keep their mouths shut.'

The summit is part of the so-called 'shuttle diplomacy' plan under which the two countries' leaders hold summits twice a year.

But shuttle diplomacy ground to a halt during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, who angered China and South Korea by going annually to a shrine to Japanese war dead including war criminals.

Mr Aso, who comes from an elite upbringing, admitted this week that Koreans and Allied prisoners worked at his family's coal mine during World War II. He had avoided the sensitive topic until Japan's opposition unearthed documents.

Mr Aso has in the past angered other Asian nations by praising elements of Japanese imperialism, but has made an effort since becoming prime minister not to irritate neighbouring countries.

Last month, Mr Aso hosted Mr Lee and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at an inaugural three-way summit near his home in southern Japan that vowed cooperation on the economy and North Korea.

But Prof Yamamoto doubted that Japan and South Korea could do much now to end North Korea's nuclear drive as they wait to see US president-elect Barack Obama's policies.

'They will of course talk about North Korea's nuclear programme, but when the US administration is in a transitional period, what they can discuss will be inevitably limited,' Prof Yamamoto said. -- AFP