RPT-Japan, China leaders to discuss poisoned dumplings

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TOKYO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - A controversy over pesticide-laced dumplings is likely to be on the diplomatic menu when Japan's prime minister meets Chinese leaders in Beijing on Friday, after a report they made Chinese as well as Japanese consumers ill.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is set to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao when he visits Beijing to attend the Olympics opening ceremony.

"The Prime Minister ... will likely mention it at a summit talk with President Hu. I think Japan and China will further cooperate on this matter to find out the truth as soon as possible," Japan's top government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told a group of reporters on Wednesday.

A food scare involving pesticide-contaminated dumplings, which had been imported from China and left 10 Japanese sick, stirred intense media coverage in Japan earlier this year, just as Beijing and Tokyo were trying to cement an improvement in their often-frayed ties.

According to Japan's Kyodo News on Wednesday, China's foreign ministry said in a statement that Chinese-made dumplings had also caused food poisoning in China in June.

"The Chinese government places great importance on the incident. The public security authorities are currently investigating with their utmost effort," Kyodo quoted the Chinese foreign ministry's statement as saying.

While both China and Japan took pains to claim the poisoning of the dumplings did not take place in their home countries, Fukuda's meeting with Hu and Wen may open the door for reinvestigation.

"A different story has emerged now, and it is likely that Japan and China will co-investigate the matter," Japan's national broadcaster NHK quoted a Japanese foreign ministry official as saying.

The dumpling saga weighed on already deep public mistrust between Japan and China, whose ties have long been strained over Japan's attitude toward its wartime aggression. (Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Additional reporting by Naoto Okamura)