However, despite the criticism, Nobutaka Machimura hailed a meeting between Hu and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Indonesia, saying it has paved the way for the two Asian powers to start repairing battered ties that have led to violent anti-Japanese protests across China.

``From the perspective of a Japanese person, Chinese textbooks appear to teach that everything the Chinese government has done has been correct,'' Machimura said on a TV Asahi talk show.

``There is a tendency toward this in any country, but the Chinese textbooks are extreme in the way they uniformly convey the `our country is correct' perspective.'''

The Japanese foreign minister also defended Japan's textbooks, saying they do not gloss over Japan's invasion of other Asian countries as alleged, and expressed dismay with the lopsided view of history taught in Chinese schools.

Tokyo's approval of new school textbooks that China claims play down wartime atrocities sparked weeks of anti-Japanese protests by tens of thousands of people across China.

Chinese also are upset over Japan's campaign for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Hoping to mend the rift, Koizumi Friday gave a ``heartfelt apology'' for Japan's wartime aggression at the start of the Asian-African summit in Jakarta - the most public penitence in a decade. But Hu told the Japanese prime minister Saturday Tokyo had to back up its apologies with actions.

There was also criticism of Chinese textbooks in Japan's media. The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's biggest newspaper, said in an editorial Sunday that China should also change the way it teaches history. ``China should halt its nationalistic and anti-Japanese education with action,'' the conservative daily said. ``It is also starting to be pointed out in the United States and Europe that history instruction in China is distorted to suit the convenience of the Communist Party.''

Machimura said Tokyo would officially inform Beijing what it thought of China's textbooks after it fully reviews them. Machimura said Tang Jiaxuan, China's state councilor and a former foreign minister, had invited him to do so during a recent discussion about teaching history. But Machimura said he was confident the neighbors' disputes could be resolved.

``They're next door. We can't move. They're important and we're important to each other,'' Machimura said of China. ``If we make this clear, we can handle the individual issues.''

The foreign minister said Hu and Koizumi confirmed they intend to ``rebuild'' bilateral ties. But he didn't indicate how Japan would answer Hu's publicly made demand that Japan ``translate into action'' its remorse for wartime militarist aggression.

Machimura said he believed the president was referring to two main issues: the textbooks and visits by Koizumi to Yasukuni, a Tokyo shrine that honors Japanese war criminals.

ASSOCIATED PRESS