Chinese and Japanese leaders have exchanged invitations to attend summits slated for later this year, according to a joint press communique issued on Wednesday.

Japan has invited Chinese President Hu Jintao to attend a meeting between G8 leaders and leaders from relevant countries in Hokkaido in July and China has invited Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to present himself at the seventh Asia-Europe Summit to be held in Beijing in October, according to the communique.

The two sides would "seriously" study the invitation from each other, it said.

Japan also proposed to hold a meeting among the Chinese, Japanese and South Korean leaders in Japan this autumn and China would study whether to accept the proposal, the communique said.

The two sides highly evaluated the "significant" role the Sino-Japanese Strategic Dialog has played in improving and promoting the bilateral relations, saying they would continue to attach importance to the mechanism.

The two sides also expressed welcome to a proposal of strengthening cooperation between media organizations of the two countries.

Foreign ministry spokespersons from China and Japan held negotiations in Tokyo in April and agreed that publicity departments and media organizations of the two countries should strengthen direct contacts and provide objective and accurate information to mass media in the two countries.

(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2008)