'China is now actively preparing for President Hu Jintao to make a state visit to Japan next year,' said China's new ambassador Cui Tiankai in a statement on the embassy's website seen yesterday.

'This will mark another visit by a Chinese head of state after 10 years, and it will certainly produce important and far-reaching consequences.'

Japan has repeatedly invited Mr Hu to visit as the two countries seek to ease long-standing tensions over history, territory and energy.

At a summit of Asian leaders in Singapore on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda again issued an invitation when he met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

A Japanese delegation official told reporters in Singapore on the same day that Mr Fukuda is expected to pay an official visit to Beijing, either late next month or in early January.

Mr Hu will then pay a reciprocal visit to Tokyo, most likely in March next year 'when the cherry blossoms are in bloom', the official added.

Ambassador Cui has now confirmed that preparations for a state visit by Mr Hu are on in earnest.

Mr Jiang Zemin in 1998 became the first Chinese president to visit Japan, but the trip was marred by disagreement after he pushed Japanese leaders to offer a more forceful apology for Tokyo's 1939-45 invasion and brutal occupation of much of China.

Relations hit rock bottom during the 2001-2006 tenure of former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, who prayed each year at Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which many Chinese and Koreans see as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Yasukuni honours 2.5 million war dead, including executed wartime leaders who had been convicted as Class-A war criminals.

The situation began to improve after Mr Shinzo Abe replaced Mr Koizumi in September last year.

Mr Abe, a strong supporter of Yasukuni, kept a strategic silence on whether he would go to the shrine, and he was able to visit Beijing and Seoul days after he assumed office.

In April this year, Mr Wen visited Japan, and that was followed by Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan's trip in August.

In a further sign of warming relations, a Chinese warship set sail on a landmark voyage to Japan on Wednesday.

The missile destroyer Shenzhen left the southern port of Zhanjiang for a visit to Tokyo that China's official Xinhua news agency described as 'a first in the history of the navy forces of the Chinese People's Liberation Army'.

Mr Fukuda, who became prime minister in September, has long supported strong ties with China. He is regarded as more dovish than his predecessor Abe, who also sought to boost 'patriotism' at home and rewrite the pacifist post-war Constitution.

Mr Fukuda's late father was a Japanese premier known for his China-friendly policies.

The two nations remain at loggerheads over a territorial dispute in the gas-rich East China Sea, and Mr Fukuda and Mr Wen agreed on Tuesday to step up negotiations on the row.

They also agreed to hold a high-level bilateral economic dialogue for the first time in Beijing on Dec 1.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS