Fukuda, a political veteran paying his first visit to Beijing since taking over in September, is hoping to show his skills as a diplomat after a sharp slide in his approval ratings at home.

The Japanese leader will spend four days in China that will include a summit with President Hu Jintao and a visit to Qufu, birthplace of the legendary philosopher Confucius.

Japan will reportedly offer to help China tackle its rapidly growing pollution problems, but talks are also expected to cover tough ground, with China and Japan at an impasse over hotly contested gas fields.

China refused high-level contact with Japan during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, citing his annual visits to a shrine venerating Japanese war dead -- including war criminals.

Fukuda's trip will be the first by a Japanese leader to China since October last year, when then premier Shinzo Abe headed to Beijing and launched a reconciliation drive just days after taking over from Koizumi.

Unlike his predecessors, Fukuda has long been known for his conciliatory approach to China including his unambiguous opposition to the Yasukuni war shrine, which Beijing and Seoul see as a symbol of Japan's past imperialism.

Fukuda's visit "is of great significance for advancing sound and stable relations between China and Japan," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Tuesday.

China has voiced hope at finding a resolution soon over the gas fields in the energy-rich East China Sea. Eleven rounds of talks since 2004 have yielded little, with Beijing rejecting the maritime border Tokyo takes as a starting point for negotiations.

But analysts said China would likely try to work to improve ties during Fukuda's visit, hoping for some concrete achievements in time for Hu's scheduled visit to Japan in the spring.

"A Chinese president in general wouldn't pay a visit to Japan without a guarantee of diplomatic achievement," said Hidenori Ijiri, a professor of international relations at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Hu will be only the second Chinese president to visit Tokyo after Jiang Zemin, whose 1998 trip was tense due to his demands that Japan use stronger language to atone for past atrocities.

Relations plunged in 2005 as China was swept by rare protests denouncing Japan's war record. But earlier this month, China was calm as it marked the sensitive 70th anniversary of Japan's massacre of the city of Nanjing.

Experts say Asia's two largest economies have little choice but to improve ties, with Beijing hoping to ensure a glitch-free Olympics next year.

"China wants to keep a good relationship with Japan as it prepares for the Beijing Olympics," said Robert Dujarric, a Tokyo-based scholar at Temple University.

"For Fukuda it is a good opportunity to show that he is a good diplomat, given that his approval ratings have been declining due to domestic politics," he said.

Fukuda took over in September after Abe abruptly quit following an election defeat and a raft of scandals.

The approval rating for Fukuda's government last week slipped as low as 31 percent, the same level as Abe's government before he resigned, due to a separate set of domestic rows.

Japan's business community is particularly keen for a strong relationship with China, which is the country's largest commercial partner and a key driver of its economic growth.

"It's unthinkable for Japan to ruin ties with China, given its massive presence as a trading partner for Tokyo and as an emerging power," said Yoshikazu Sakamoto, a professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo.

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