For the first time ever, China, excluding Hong Kong, displaced the United States as Japan's biggest trading partner on an annual basis in fiscal 2006, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

The development, shown in the ministry's monthly trade report, signals China's growing clout in the global economy and the deepening economic interdependence between Japan and China.

Japan's exports to China soared 21.2 percent to a record 11.315 trillion yen in the fiscal year, while imports from the country increased 13.0 percent to a record 14.113 trillion yen, the ministry said in a preliminary report.