The latest food poisoning cases in China appeared to cast doubt on Beijing's assertion that the dumplings at the centre of the incident in Japan early this year were contaminated with pesticide after leaving the country.

"A lot of time has passed (since the incident in Japan). I thought this needed to be settled as quickly as possible. But currently, Chinese authorities are continuing their investigation," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said.

Ten people suffered pesticide poisoning in December and January in Japan after eating the frozen dumplings imported from China, while thousands more complained about feeling ill.

A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said Beijing had informed Tokyo that Chinese people who ate dumplings also fell ill in June.

"It is true that food poisoning caused by dumplings occurred in June in China," he quoted the Chinese government as saying.

As for Japan, "we need to continue investigating this issue, including any possible link between the incident and the food poisoning in Japan," he said.

Fukuda will discuss the issue of food safety when he meets Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in China on Friday, said the top government spokesman, Nobutaka Machimura.

Japan was notified of the incident by Chinese authorities in early July before the Group of Eight summit took place in northern Japan, Japanese media reports said.

The dumplings that caused the illness in China are believed to have been distributed even after the manufacturer halted production at the Chinese factory and recalled the products, the reports said.

The Chinese who ate the dumplings were "seriously ill," the Yomiuri daily said, although it was unclear exactly how many people had gotten sick.

The dumplings contained the same pesticide that was found in those in Japan, the reports said.

In the Japanese case, police have said the pesticide was found inside bags of dumplings that were packaged and sealed in China with no punctures or signs that chemicals seeped in from the outside.

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