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After more than two years of tension over a territorial row,the leaders of China and Japan hold formal talks on the sidelines of a major Asian summit.

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Monday, 10 November 2014
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping (R), during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Beijing.
The talks are the first between the two leaders and Mr Abe said they were the first step to improving ties.
Relations have been soured by a row over islands in the East China Sea.
The uninhabited but strategically important islands, known as Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan, are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China.
Tokyo's decision to purchase three of them from their private Japanese owner in September 2012 led to an escalation in a dispute that has rumbled quietly for years.
President Obama is also attending the summit. In a speech, he stressed the importance of ties between China and the US.
"The US welcomes the rise of a prosperous, peaceful and stable China," he said.
Mr Obama also announced the extension of visas for Chinese visitors - businessmen, tourists and students - to the US. 
Analysis: Carrie Gracie, BBC China editor
After two years of Chinese animosity towards Japan's new prime minister, President Xi has finally relented.
Today's face-to-face meeting with Shinzo Abe is important progress in relations between the world's second and third largest economies.
But the underlying disagreements over territory and history remain as bitter as ever. And even Mr Xi's body language at today's meeting was calculatedly icy.
During the handshake he did not smile or respond to Mr Abe's attempt at conversation.
For all the fireworks and group photographs, this summit brings together neighbours with different worldviews at a difficult moment in history.
How uninhabited islands soured China-Japan ties
The Chinese and Japanese leaders interacted awkwardly as they posed for an unsmiling photo after their talks.
Mr Abe said the meeting - which came three days after the two sides agreed to work to prevent the territorial dispute from escalating - was "the first step for improving ties by returning to mutually beneficial relations based on common strategic interests".
He also said they had agreed to start preparations to establish a maritime crisis mechanism.
There have been fears that a clash - accidental or otherwise - between Chinese and Japanese paramilitary vessels patrolling waters around the disputed islands could trigger a conflict.
Mr Xi told Mr Abe that "historical issues concern the feelings of more than 1.3 billion Chinese people" and that China hoped Japan would follow a path of peaceful development and adopt prudent military and security policies.
China has in the past complained about what it sees as Japan's failure to adequately acknowledge its war-time actions and has been angered by visits by Japanese lawmakers - including Mr Abe - to the Yasukuni shrine that commemorates Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals.
But Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunubo Kato said there was no direct mention of the Yasukuni shrine nor of the disputed islands during the half-hour talks.

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