China yesterday dispelled speculation that Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama would later in the year visit Nanjing, the metropolis where the Japanese army had killed nearly 300,000 Chinese in 1937.

High-level bilateral visits between the Asian neighbors, however, would go on as usual, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a routine press briefing in Beijing yesterday.

"It is very important that high-ranking officials on both sides keep exchanging visits, but as far as I know, this report (of Hatoyama visiting Nanjing) is baseless," Jiang said.

Japan too has denied reports of Hatoyama's Nanjing tour. "The report is ungrounded," Japan's Kyodo News Agency quoted the country's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano as saying. "By far, there has been no discussion over whether Hatoyama would go to Nanjing."

On Wednesday, Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's widely circulated daily, claimed that Hatoyama might drop in on Nanjing, after a trip to Shanghai to attend the World Expo in June.

The French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Monday that, following Hatoyama's visit, the Japanese government would likely invite Chinese President Hu Jintao to tour Hiroshima, which was devastated by a US-dropped atomic bomb in 1945 at the end of World War II.

Netizens in both countries are furiously discussing the issue online.

"Japan owes China a formal and heartfelt apology, which I hope Hatoyama will make," a Chinese Web user with the online moniker "Aiya Zenmebanne" commented on tianya.cn, one of the most influential online forums in the country.

Some Japanese netizens, however, are against any such apology. "The historical facts are not completely certain as yet, and our PM should not go to China to apologize so soon," a Japanese netizen using the Web name "Nan" said.

Scholars on both sides are expected to release this month the findings of a three-year joint study on the history of China and Japan. Disputed issues like the Nanjing Massacre are also expected to figure in the report.

"History is a fundamental issue as far as relations between the two powers go. Inappropriate handling of historical issues would hinder the development of the relationship," said Gao Hong, a Japan studies expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"No Japanese prime minister has visited Nanjing - which is the most sensitive and painful place for Chinese citizens - to apologize and confess," Gao said.

"If Hatoyama visits Nanjing to confess for the war crimes and lament for those who died in the war, it will promote mutual trust and understanding between the two countries," Gao said.

"It is also good for Japan's image in the international arena," Gao said.

Gao also hoped the Hatoyama administration, which has made efforts to come closer to China ever since it came to power last September, "will have more courage to do the right thing and fend off attacks by its right-wing forces", who have always denied historical facts.