Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Friday said Japan would "very earnestly" reflect on the "agonizing part of history" and continue to follow the path of peaceful development so as to establish "forward-looking China-Japan relations".

Fukuda made the statement when meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. China and Japan have a long-standing disagreement over wartime history.

While speaking at the Peking University in the afternoon, Fukuda said Wen Jiabao stressed during his trip to Japan in April that the principle of "taking history as a mirror and looking forward to the future" was not meant to prolong hatred but to make a better future.

"I took the words of Premier Wen seriously," Fukuda told students.