(Adds China comment)
Sept 26 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said
he wants to improve relations with China, South Korea and
Russia, while acknowledging difficulties facing ties with his
country's Asia-Pacific neighbours.
"Quiet efforts are needed" if Abe is to achieve his goal of
meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a
November Pacific Rim meeting in Beijing, Abe told a news
conference in New York on Thursday evening.
The news conference was broadcast live in Tokyo.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Japan
must work to "remove obstacles" in their relationship.
"We hope that the Japanese side can show sincerity and take
concrete actions to improve bilateral ties," she said at a daily
briefing.
Abe, who came to office in December 2012, visited all the
leaders of Southeast Asia in his first year, but he has not been
able to meet bilaterally with the leaders of China or South
Korea, countries angered by territorial disputes with Japan and
Abe's approach to Japan's wartime past.
He has met Russian President Vladimir Putin five times, but
ties have recently been strained as Moscow annexed Ukraine's
Crimea region and pro-Russian rebels fought Ukrainian forces in
eastern Ukraine.
(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski in TOKYO; Editing by William
Mallard and Chris Gallagher)
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