Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has gone five times while in office to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors 2.5 million war dead including 14 top war criminals and is seen by China and South Korea as a symbol of militarism.

"I am confident the people of Japan will come to a conclusion that will be able to honor those people without embracing the cause" of militarism, ambassador Thomas Schieffer told a lunch in Tokyo.

"I too believe that Prime Minister Koizumi and Foreign Minister (Taro) Aso are not people who are radicals or embrace right-wing philosophies," he said.

Schieffer said Japan was trying by itself "to figure out how it can honor the people who died for their country without embracing the cause for which they died.

"That's a difficult proposition. And I think Japan has not quite figured out how it wants to do that," he said. "And I am not sure that the opinion of foreigners is particularly helpful in a resolution of that."

Koizumi, who steps down in September, says that his pilgrimages to the shrine are to honor all victims of war and recommit Japan to pacifism.

Aso, who is known for his hawkish statements, met his Chinese and South Korean counterparts on Tuesday on the sidelines of a conference in Qatar.

It was the first meeting between the Japanese and Chinese foreign ministers in more than a year.

China's Li Zhaoxing told him in the talks that Koizumi, who steps down in September, must stop his visits to Yasukuni.

The United States is Japan's closest ally, although a prominent Republican congressman, World War II veteran Henry Hyde, has recently criticized Koizumi over the shrine visits.

The United States has taken a higher profile supporting Japan's efforts to secure the release of Japanese civilians whom North Korea kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies.

The most famous victim is Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents when she was 13 in 1977.

Sakie Yokota, Megumi's mother, last month met with US President George W. Bush, who said that he was moved by her plight and called North Korea a "heartless" regime.

"Hopefully through your efforts, we will ultimately find out what happened to your daughter and hopefully that will lead to a reunion. That'll be a happy day across the world," Schieffer told Yokota's parents, who attended the luncheon.

Schieffer was the first US envoy to visit the area in coastal Niigata prefecture where Megumi was snatched as she walked home from school.

Megumi's father Shigeru Yokota told the luncheon, "We would like to continue to work until all the abductees, not only Japanese, but the many South Koreans and people from other countries including Thailand are freed."

North Korea repatriated five Japanese kidnap victims and their families in 2002 after promises of aid. The regime says that the issue has been resolved and that Yokota is dead.

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