Mr Hu's visit, starting May 6, will be the first such trip by a Chinese president in 10 years.

'We hope ... it will enhance our political mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said of the trip.

Ms Jiang told a news conference that improving relations was in the fundamental interests of the two countries.

She said Mr Hu will have extensive contact with Japanese lawmakers during his four-day trip.

Japanese media have already been playing up the visit, with Kyodo News agency earlier this month citing unidentified officials as saying Mr Hu and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda would play pingpong at a Tokyo university.

Such an event would be reminiscent of the 'pingpong diplomacy' of the early 1970s, when an exchange of players from the United States and China marked a thaw in relations between Washington and Beijing.

The countries have improved ties recently after they plunged due to former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to a Tokyo war shrine, as well as disputes over issues including the use of gas deposits in the East China Sea.

A series of bilateral talks on the gas deposits have not appeared to bring the two sides any closer to a resolution.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao played baseball when he visited Japan last September, and Mr Fukuda and he tossed around a baseball when the Japanese prime minister visited China in December.

Mr Hu was expected to give a lecture at Waseda University, Mr Fukuda's alma mater, on May 8, and then play pingpong with the prime minister, Kyodo reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that Hu met former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone on Tuesday.

'Sino-Japanese relations now are improving further,' Hu told Nakasone, according to Xinhua. -- AP