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Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing Tuesday declared that Japan should face its history in a responsible manner and handle the issue of "comfort women" in a proper manner.

His remarks came at a press conference at the sidelines of the Fifth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

Li addressed the issue, calling the "comfort women" issue a historical fact and a serious crime committed by Japanese troops during World War II. He encouraged the Japanese government to view historical events as a basis upon which to handle future bilateral relations with China.

This year marks the 35th anniversary since diplomatic ties were once again normalized and both sides should grasp this time of renewed hope to positively handle all fundamental political issues concerning the bilateral relationship as well as expanding exchanges and cooperation, Li said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday that Japan would not offer any new apology over the wartime sex slavery issue after he told reporters that "there is no evidence to prove there was coercion" exercised over the foreign women.

Abe, aiming to shore up his reputation with his conservative base, triggered international outcry after appearing to doubt the state's part in forcing women to prostitute themselves for soldiers during World War II.

US Congressman Michael Honda, a California Democrat, has introduced a non-binding resolution to the House of Representatives calling on Japan to give a full apology for the suffering that thousands of Asian women, many Korean and Chinese, endured at the hands of its Imperial Army.

"I have to say that even if the resolution passes, that doesn't mean we will apologize," Abe told a parliamentary panel Monday, pointing out that the US resolution contained factual errors.

However, Abe added that he fully supported a 1993 government apology that acknowledged the Japanese military's role in creating and operating wartime brothels and admits the use of coercion.

"It is not true that Japan has never reflected or apologized," he told reporters later. "The facts are as contained in the (1993) statement."

Last week, Abe's comments infuriated Seoul after he seemed to question whether physical coercion had been used to find women for the brothels.

"There is no evidence to back up that there was coercion as defined initially," he said on Thursday, seemingly addressing accusations that the Imperial Army had kidnapped women and forced them into military brothels.

Monday, Abe backtracked, saying that coercion had been used in some cases, particularly by middlemen. He still stopped short of a full retraction, adding: "It was not as though military police broke into people's homes and took them away like kidnappers."

It is estimated that during World War II, some 200,000 Asian women were forcibly drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army to serve as sex slaves. Surviving comfort women have demanded apology and compensation from the Japanese government.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily March 6, 2007)