President Jiang Zemin Tuesday urged the Japanese Government to tell the true history to its people.

Jiang made the remarks when meeting a Japanese delegation led by secretaries-general of the three ruling coalition parties of Japan.

The meeting took place one day after the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed its "extreme regret'' and "strong indignation'' towards Japan's refusal to revise a history textbook whitewashing Japan's wartime atrocity.

History is an objective reality that cannot be exaggerated or diminished, said Jiang, adding that the Japanese invasion during the late 1930s and 1940s brought major trauma to the Chinese people.

The Chinese president, describing both China and Japan as "important countries in Asia,'' said that learning lessons from the past will help improve bilateral relations in the future.

The same message was conveyed during meetings between Vice-Premier Qian Qichen and Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and the Japanese guests, who included Secretary-General Taku Yamazaki of the Liberal Democratic Party, Secretary-General Fuyushiba Tetsuzo of the Komei Party, and Secretary-General Takeshi Noda of the Conservative Party.

Tang, blaming errors by Japan for damaging bilateral relations, stressed that a proper handling of the issues in dispute will help ties to recover.

He again demanded Japan to honour its commitment on history issues and properly handle the textbook issue.

According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Tang also said that the Chinese people and people in other war victim countries in Asia will not accept it if the Japanese leader insisted on going to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's Class-A war criminals are worshipped.

The spokesman quoted the Japanese guests as saying that Japan will adhere to the principles enshrined in the joint declaration signed during Jiang's visit to Japan in 1998 to push for smooth progress of bilateral ties.

In the 1998 document, the Japanese government expressed "deep reflection'' over its history of invasion to China between 1937 and 1945.

The spokesman also said that the Japanese guests expressed the Junichiro Koizumi administration's wish to push bilateral relations during the meeting.

Calling its relations with China one of Japan's most important bilateral ties, the three secretaries-general were quoted as saying that the two countries should handle their disputes properly so as not to affect the fine development of bilateral relations.

Ties between China and Japan have been tense in the past few months, marred by such incidents as Koizumi's insistence to visit the Yasukuni Shrine, the permission to allow Taiwan's Lee Teng-hui to go to Japan and the textbook issue.