TOKYO (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promoted prospects for cooperating with rival and neighbour Japan on Thursday, but urged Tokyo to live up to apologies for wartime brutality and to oppose independence for Taiwan.
Wen stressed Beijing's soothing theme of peaceful development to Japan's parliament as part of a three-day trip weighted with more symbolic gestures than concrete breakthroughs in feuds over energy, territory and history.
But between smiles, Wen had some hard reminders that China remains wary of Japan's handling of legacies from its bloody occupation of much of Asia, including China, up to 1945.
"The Chinese people suffered calamity during the war of invasion launched by Japan," Wen told legislators, noting apologies offered in past years by Japan's leaders.
The two Asian giants fell out during the five-year term of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, who made annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine, seen across much of the region as a symbol of past militarism.
Wen also had tough words about Taiwan, the former Japanese colony that has been divided since 1949 from mainland China, which says the island must accept eventual reunification.
"We will strive with all our might to achieve peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue, but we will never tolerate Taiwan independence," Wen said.
Wen's speech was the first by a Chinese leader to Japan's parliament in 22 years, another step in efforts to set aside rancour over history and nurture cooperation.
Speaking like a patient schoolmaster, Wen devoted much of his parliament speech to citing models of past Sino-Japanese friendship, including Buddhist monks.
"The development of our relations has gone through tempests and twists and turns, but the foundation of our friendship is unshakeable just like Mount Tai and Mount Fuji," Wen said, referring to famous landmarks in the two countries.
Wen told a meeting of Japanese business executives later on Thursday that the two giant economies could cooperate on energy saving, environmental protection, high tech and finance.
He also said his summit with Abe the previous evening had inspired him to write a poem -- at midnight -- referring to the early arrival of spring.
Wen has sought to use his human touch as a diplomatic tool -- chatting with Tokyo residents during an early morning jog, joining in group exercises and promising a cameo display of baseball when he visits Kyoto on Friday.
"I can take personal responsibility in telling you that China holds up the banner of peaceful development," he said in the parliament speech, carried live on TV in both Japan and China.
Wen repeated China's message that it was willing to seek a way to jointly develop energy resources in the disputed East China Sea and called for accelerated efforts to reach a solution.
At their summit on Wednesday, however, the two leaders made no concrete progress towards resolving the feud over the boundary between their exclusive economic zones in the area, where Tokyo fears Chinese development may drain resources claimed by Japan.
Wen is seeking to steer his country towards cleaner growth that will ease pressure on resources, and his delegation is heavy with economic and energy officials who hope to absorb some of Japan's wealth and technology.
Ma Kai, head of China's energy policy-setting National Development and Reform Commission, told a forum on Thursday that his country's efforts to cut energy waste and pollution presented a "massive investment opportunity" open to Japanese investors.
Japanese and Chinese companies at the gathering said they signed deals that may lead to possible joint development of oil and gas projects in the future, including in the East China Sea.
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