The latest flare up over the Yasukuni shrine, which honours Japanese war dead and has long plagued relations between the Asian giants, comes just ahead of Aso's planned two-day visit to China next week.

"The Chinese side has already expressed to the Japanese side through diplomatic channels our serious concern and dissatisfaction," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"(We) reiterated that the question of history is highly sensitive, that any mistaken action by the Japanese side will bring a serious and negative influence to bilateral relations."

Aso, who took office in September, has avoided visiting the Yasukuni shrine, which honours 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including 14 top war criminals from World War II.

But the conservative premier offered the shinto shrine a potted sakaki evergreen plant Tuesday to mark the start of Japan's three-day spring festival.

"I expressed my appreciation and respect as a Japanese national to the people who sacrificed their precious lives for the country," Aso told reporters then.

A Japanese foreign ministry official in the Chinese affairs section told AFP Thursday that Tokyo believed Aso's offering to the shrine would have no impact on his planned visit to Beijing.

"There were times when visits to the shrine affected the relationship with China, but making an offering is different from visiting the shrine," said the official, who spoke on condition he was not named.

"The prime minister made an offering last autumn, too. China has expressed its position through a diplomatic channel and on the Internet, but we expect nothing more."

The Japanese government Wednesday also tried to play down the impact of Aso's sakaki offering on relations with neighbour countries.

Aso bought the plant with his own money, "in a private capacity," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference, saying he didn't think it "would create a particular obstacle."

However, Jiang repeated comments made in previous disputes over the Yasukuni shrine that Japan's handling of sensitive historical issues was a key factor in relations between the two countries.

"The correct recognition and the appropriate handling of historical issues is the political basis to Sino-Japanese relations," she said.

"We call on the Japanese side to use caution in its words and actions and appropriately handle this."

Jiang did not comment specifically when asked whether the latest development would impact on Aso's planned trip to China, telling reporters only to monitor the ministry's website for further information.

China was enraged by former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the shrine during his 2001-2006 tenure, suspending top-level diplomatic meetings, including summits, over the issue.

After Koizumi stepped down, Japanese prime ministers have stayed away from the shrine.

Aso's predecessor, Yasuo Fukuda, who advocated close ties with China, urged reconciliation with other Asian countries and openly opposed visits to the shrine by political leaders.

Koizumi's Yasukuni visits also hurt Japan's ties with South Korea.

There is still much resentment in China over Japan's bloody occupation of parts of the country from 1931 to 1945, while many Koreans have bitter memories of Japan's brutal colonial rule of the peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

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