BEIJING - China said Tuesday it was ready to work with the new Democratic Party-led government in Japan, following weekend elections there that saw a landslide victory for the centre-left opposition.

"We are ready to work with Japan to strengthen our bilateral cooperation and keep up the sound momentum of high-level exchanges to... jointly contribute to peace and development in Asia," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.

Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won 308 seats in the powerful 480-member lower house in Sunday's elections, ending more than half a century of almost unbroken conservative rule.

Hatoyama, a US-educated engineer, has already indicated that Japan's foreign policy should look more towards Asia and less to the United States.

In an article published last week by The New York Times, he highlighted the fast rise of China as an economic power and called for the creation of an Asian community with a common currency based on the European Union model.

The two countries have been working hard to reduce years of simmering tensions stemming largely from Japan's brutal World War II occupation of China.

Under former premier Junichiro Koizumi, who ruled Japan between 2001 and 2006, Tokyo's relations with Beijing deteriorated badly over his repeated visits to a controversial war shrine.

Hatoyama has said he will not visit the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo.

Calling Japan and China "important neighbours" and "major countries" in Asia, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman sounded a note of caution on "historical issues."

"We believe that Japan should treat historical issues in a responsible manner, which is in its own interest and conducive to improving its relations with other Asian countries," she said.