NEW YORK (Kyodo) Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama proposed the formation of an East Asian community along the lines of the European Union in his first meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The two leaders, meeting late Monday, also agreed to deepen bilateral ties, work closely toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and make progress on a snagged joint gas-development project in the East China Sea.
Hatoyama said he wants to make the two nations' strategic and mutually beneficial relations "more substantial," according to Japanese officials.