A major Japanese business group urged Tuesday the nation's leaders to improve relations with China in a bid to build a future-oriented relationship.

The Japan Association of Corporate Executives, or Keizai Doyukai, said in the "Suggestions on Future Japan-China Relations" that mutual trust and respect between both governments are indispensable to stability and prosperity of Asia and to the world at large.

The establishment of friendly relations and development of economic and trade cooperation not only benefit themselves and Asia, but also contribute to peace and stability of the international community, it said.

The 13-page proposal called for efforts from both governments to improve ties. The two governments should seek common ground while putting aside their differences, and build a new, future-oriented relation, it said.

To ensure Japan's security and prosperity in the 21st century, maintaining and improving friendly ties with China and other countries in East Asia is of the same importance as maintaining the Japan-U.S. relations, the proposal said.

It is particularly important to secure and develop friendly ties with China, which is a driving force of world economy and whose political influence is growing, it said, urging the Japanese government to attach more importance to its Asian diplomacy.

According to the proposal, the first step in building a future-oriented Japan-China relationship should be creating opportunities for re-opening summit meetings between the heads of state of both countries.

To that end, the proposal called on Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to reconsider his annual visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine , a practice that is the major stumbling block to bilateral ties.

The shrine honors convicted Class-A Japanese WWII war criminals along with over 2 million war dead.

The proposal said a national and nonreligious memorial should be established.

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