TOKYO (AFP) -- Japan on Wednesday urged China to maintain bilateral dialogue after their foreign ministers met for the first time in more than a year and clashed over the wartime legacy.

"It's necessary to recognize, and sometimes to respect, the difference in each other's way of thinking in order for the two countries to build a mature relationship," said Japanese government spokesman Shinzo Abe.

"We must not close the channel of dialogue that would provide the ground to achieve the goal," said the chief cabinet secretary, who is seen as a potential future prime minister.

He praised the meeting between the two nations' foreign ministers, which came on the sidelines of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue in Doha.

"It is extremely important to hold an occasion like this where we can exchange opinions. It's a valuable opportunity to deepen understanding of each other," Abe said.

China's Li Zhaoxing made clear in the meeting that the key obstacle to improving relations was Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni war shrine.

The Shinto sanctuary honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including 14 top or Class-A war criminals. China has called off all top-level visits with Koizumi, who leaves office in September, due to the dispute.

"The repeated visits by the Japanese leader to the Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates class-A criminals of World War II, seriously offend the sentiments of the Chinese people and violate the political foundation of bilateral relations," Li told his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso, according to the Chinese spokesman.

The militarist past of Japan, which occupied China from 1931 to 1945, remains a major stumbling block in bilateral relations. China and South Korea, which were both invaded by Japan, consider the shrine a symbol of Japan's past.