Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) on Thursday told Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe that China wants to cooperate with Japan on environmental protection and energy conservation, and that the Japanese business community also hopes to work together in these areas, government officials said.

Mitarai, who briefed Abe about his meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday, said China is working to enhance the transparency of its legal system, protect intellectual property rights, and abide by the tariff and other trade rules of the World Trade Organization, the officials said.

Mitarai was in Beijing as part of a delegation of business leaders from last Sunday through Wednesday.

Abe, who is widely expected to win the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election later this month and succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, was quoted during the meeting with Mitarai as saying the two countries should recognize that closer ties will benefit both.

At a news conference after the meeting, Abe said Mitarai did not mention whether Wen had said anything specific about a possible summit between the two nation's leaders.

China has refused to hold summit talks with Japan in response to Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Class-A war criminals as well as the war dead.

During Mitarai's trip, Wen said that talks between leaders of the two countries can resume as soon as "the political obstacle" is removed.