Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Wednesday rejected calls to stop his controversial visits to a Tokyo shrine which honors Class-A war criminals.

Both China and South Korea have cancelled diplomatic exchanges in the wake of Koizumi's latest visit on Monday to the Yasukuni Shrine.

It is seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's militarism and visits to Yasukuni by Japanese Government leaders have sparked protests at home and abroad. But Koizumi said Japan had been increasing co-operation with its neighbors and relations were not based solely on his annual pilgrimages, which he described as a matter of conscience.

"I don't support the argument that relations with China and South Korea will be all right if I stop visiting Yasukuni," Koizumi said in a one-on-one debate with an opposition leader in parliament.

"The issues with China and Japan-China relations are not confined to Yasukuni," he said. "Relations and inter-dependencies have been deepening in various areas," the prime minister added.

Koizumi said his right to make the pilgrimage was guaranteed by law, despite a Japanese high court ruling last month that it violated the constitutional separation of politics and religion.

"I, Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister of Japan, paid homage as a member of a nation to express respect and gratitude for people who have fallen in the battlefields in spite of themselves," he said.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday he had put on hold a planned trip to Japan. Earlier Seoul said President Roh Moo-hyun may scrap a summit with Koizumi, which had been scheduled in Tokyo later this year.

(China Daily October 20, 2005)