Fukuda to attend Olympics opening ceremony, meet Hu, Wen on Fri.+

TOKYO, Aug. 5 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will visit China to attend Friday's Beijing Olympic
Games opening ceremony and hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and
Premier Wen Jiabao the same day, a Foreign Ministry official said.

In the talks, Fukuda is expected to reaffirm his policy of promoting
''strategic, mutually beneficial'' ties between the countries, and exchange
opinions on North Korean nuclear issues as well as on how Japan can cooperate
in China's reconstruction efforts in the wake of the huge earthquake in May in
Sichuan Province.
Fukuda, accompanied by his wife Kiyoko during the trip, will be the first
Japanese prime minister to attend an Olympics opening ceremony since the late
Noboru Takeshita did so in Seoul in 1988.
''We hope the visit will give the impression to people in Japan and China, as
well as to the world, of steadily developing Japan-China ties,'' the official
said.
For Fukuda, it will be his second visit to China since taking office in
September last year. The latest talks between Fukuda and Hu were held in July
on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido.
Following their arrival in Beijing, Fukuda and his wife are expected to attend
a welcome reception hosted by Hu and his wife Liu Yongqing. Kiyoko also plans
to visit an elementary school designated to cheer for Japanese athletes in the
Olympics as part of international exchange activities.
Fukuda and Kiyoko plan to return to Japan on Saturday morning and head directly
to Nagasaki for the annual ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1945 U.S.
atomic bombing of the city the same day.
==Kyodo