Hong Kong

JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bid for formal talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a regional summit in Beijing next week is unlikely to succeed, a commentary by China's state-run Xinhua News Agency said. The prospects for a first meeting between the two leaders during next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation had risen after Mr Abe met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Milan last month.

With relations between the two countries strained by spats over territory and Japan's World War II legacy, Mr Abe may have to make do with a welcome rather than the initiation of dialogue, according to the Xinhua commentary.