Japan seeks dialogue in oil dispute

A day after China criticized Japan for committing a "serious provocation" in opening the disputed East China Sea for oil drilling by Japanese firms, Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the two countries should resolve their differences diplomatically. In other developments, in a remark presumably directed at Japan, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the best way to deal with history was to be "sensitive and self-critical" in response to a reporter's query on what Asia could learn from Germany in dealing with the past.