Hatoyama, who leads the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), said he would look to the future in building diplomatic ties in Asia while acknowledging the past, alluding to Japan's aggression during World War II.

"We will have the courage to squarely look at what Japan did in the past and will work by focusing on the future," the US-trained engineering scholar and grandson of a former premier told a press conference.

"I think the Japan-China relationship will move forward" under a DPJ-led government, he told foreign journalists ahead of the August 30 elections.

Hatoyama also pledged to ensure diplomatic continuity with other countries but added that Japan should stop designing its policies to fit US demands.

He reiterated that the DPJ would launch "a comprehensive review of our relations" with main ally the United States while seeking to build trust with US President Barack Obama, who is expected to visit Tokyo in November.

Hatoyama said Japan appreciated the US defence alliance but questioned, for example, committing Japanese troops to US-led military operations that lack broad public support in officially pacifist Japan, such as the war in Iraq.

"What is key is how we can build trust with President Obama," Hatoyama said. "We must have dignity and say what we want to say to the United States."

Polls have indicated the DPJ is well-placed to defeat the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan almost without break since 1955.

Hatoyama maintained a dovish tone, saying he wished to draw closer to Europe, boost development aid for Afghanistan, and look toward the long-term goal of an EU-style East Asian community.

He pledged to build "relations of trust at the leadership level" with China and promised not to visit Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine, which honours 2.5 million war dead, along with 14 Class-A war criminals from World War II.

"Of course, I would not go to Yasukuni Shrine if I were to take the post (of prime minister), and I would ask my cabinet ministers to refrain from visiting there too," Hatoyama told reporters.

Sino-Japanese relations have long been sensitive, largely because of Japan's bloody occupation of parts of China from 1931 to 1945.

Previous visits to the shrine by Japanese officials have angered China, South Korea and others who see it as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Hatoyama also expressed his willingness to work on tough issues, including a dispute over gas fields in the East China Sea.

"My belief is that, by working on outstanding problems... the sense of our mutual trust will become more profound," he said.

"Of course, claims from Japan and China may not always sit together well. But I regard things like the joint development of the gas fields as one of the processes toward reconciliation."

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