China and Japan had frank discussions on the second day of the three-day seventh round of strategic dialogue on Friday in Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry has announced.

The two sides discussed building "strategic, mutually beneficial" bilateral ties, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Yachi Shotaro are heading the two delegations at the meeting, which ends on Saturday.

The two sides had "frank" and "in-depth" exchanges of views on how to cement the sound momentum of improving and developing bilateral ties, said a statement released by the Foreign Ministry.

They also conferred on international and regional issues of common concern, it said.

Both sides agreed to hold next round of strategic dialogue in Japan at a "convenient time" for both sides.

The first round of the strategic dialogue was held in Beijing in May 2005.

The China-Japan strategic dialogue was initiated at a time when bilateral relations faced great difficulties, Dai said in his opening remarks, adding the dialogue played a role in removing political obstacles in bilateral relations and getting the relations back on track.

Both Dai and Shotaro said they still had a "heavy responsibility" to promote China-Japan ties.

Later on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing also met with Shotaro. "These (talks) provide an important opportunity for progress in bilateral ties," Li said, urging the two countries to make joint efforts to advance relations.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu on Thursday said the strategic dialogue was an important channel to carry out the consensus of top leaders of the two countries.

(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2007)