Hatoyama, who has said he wants to improve ties with East Asia that have often been strained, left Beijing on Saturday after a summit with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.

"It was a good summit to start with," Hatoyama said, stressing that he saw momentum towards an Asian partnership, evident in a call by the three for North Korea to return to six-party nuclear talks.

In addition to pledging deeper cooperation to end North Korea's nuclear defiance, the leaders agreed to work together on addressing climate change and economic development.

Hatoyama, whose centre-left coalition took power three weeks ago, has pledged a conciliatory regional policy, proposing a European Union-like East Asian community.

Importantly, he has also promised not to visit a war shrine in Tokyo that honours 2.5 million war dead but also 14 convicted war criminals and is seen by Asian neighbours as a symbol of Japan's wartime aggression.

"Japan has relied a bit too much on the United States until now," Hatoyama told his counterparts on Saturday. "I would like to map out policies to reach out to Asia, as a country of Asia."

"This new Japan would like to construct the East Asia community eventually," he added, expressing a will to overcome a score of long-running disputes.

Before his visit to Beijing, Hatoyama visited the South Korean capital Seoul, where he repeated a vow that his government would "face up" to history.

Analysts said Hatoyama had signalled a break by his Democratic Party of Japan from the traditions of the Liberal Democratic Party, which dominated Japanese politics during 50 years of almost unbroken one-party rule.

"Hatoyama has laid the groundwork for better ties with China and South Korea, which have constantly worried about a Japanese leader from the Liberal Democratic Party going to the Yasukuni shrine," said Tetsuro Kato, politics professor at Tokyo's Hitotsubashi University.

Under the LDP, politicians' visits to the Shinto shrine badly frayed relations with China, the Koreas and other neighbours.

Ties with China and Korea soured badly during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, who repeatedly visited the shrine. Those visits led to a suspension of state visits between Tokyo and Beijing.

Hatoyama has said he will stay away from the shrine and has asked his Cabinet to do the same, while also proposing Japan build a new, non-religious state war memorial as an alternative.

"His message for co-existence with other Asian state has been conveyed," said Takehiko Yamamoto, professor of international politics at Waseda University. "Now the issue is how he will act on this."

Analysts said Japan's territorial disputes were also among the main challenges Hatoyama faces. They include a dispute over the East China Sea, where Tokyo and Beijing have locked horns over rights to develop gas fields.

Japan also has a dispute with South Korea over a set of islands in the Sea of Japan, or East Sea.

Hatoyama is beginning this rebalancing of ties as Washington, Japan's biggest ally, is shifting its focus in Asia to China, Kato said.

US President Barack Obama, who is to attend the Asia-Pacific economic forum in Singapore next month, plans to spend four days in China and only two in Japan on his first Asian tour.

"One main challenge for Hatoyama in Asia is how he can grow economic ties with China without letting the historical disputes cut into it," Kato said.

The trip to Seoul and Beijing "only helped him build trusting relations," he said. "Obstacles still remain."

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