Japan will help China train 10,000 people on energy-saving and environmental protection technologies, said visiting Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Beijing on Friday.

"Japan has accumulated a lot of experience in improving the energy efficiency that can be shared with China," said Fukuda during a speech at the prestigious Peking University.

He told the students he had very candid talks with Premier Wen Jiabao and the topics covered a wide scope, including personnel and technological exchange.

"Fortunately, Japan has started to tackle environmental problems seriously from an early date ... and is now one of the most efficient users of energy resources in the world," Fukuda said, noting his country would make every effort to assist China in this field.

The two sides had already signed a cooperation document on climate change and issued a joint communique on technology transfer in the environmental and energy sectors.

The training of 10,000 Chinese on energy-saving and environmental protection technologies would be completed in three years starting from 2008, according to the communique.

Joint research and projects on emission cutting, greenhouse reduction and sandstorm control would also be improved.

Japan would help China check and upgrade energy-saving technologies in the steel, cement and thermal power industries. The two sides would also cooperate in water pollution control in major river valleys, such as the Yangtze, and in the new city development mode based on the "recycled economy", it said.

The two sides would strengthen cooperation in forestry administration as well as wild training and nature returning of crested ibises so as to help maintain bio-diversity in the Asia-Pacific region and in the world, it said.

The document on climate change featured exchanges of related scientific technologies, with about 50 Chinese young researchers to be invited to visit Japan annually in the following four years.

Cooperation in scientific technologies, part of the joint efforts to build the "strategic and mutually beneficial China-Japan relations", could play a key role in coping with climate change as they may help cut waste, promote energy recycling and develop new energy resources, the document said.

Premier Wen held talks with Fukuda for 2.5 hours on Friday morning and the two witnessed the signing of three cooperation documents in fields of youth exchange, technical cooperation on climate change, and a new joint research on magnetic fusion energy.

Fukuda arrived in Beijing on Thursday afternoon for the start of an official visit which runs through Sunday.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2007)