South Korea's Lee wants to cut Japan trade gap: report

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday called for "fundamental measures" to reduce the country's chronic trade deficit with Japan, Yonhap news agency reported.

"(The government) has to find fundamental measures to overcome the trade deficit amounting to $30 billion annually with Japan," Yonhap quoted Lee as saying at a meeting with senior aides.

Officials at the presidential Blue House were not immediately available.

South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, had a trade surplus globally for the 10th year in a row last year but ran a $30 billion deficit with neighboring Japan.

South Korean manufacturers rely heavily on imports of Japanese machinery parts to produce goods ranging from ships and chips to home appliances and cars.

The newly inaugurated president is due to visit Japan in the first half of 2008 in an effort to repair relations long haunted by their wartime history.

Lee won December's election in a landslide with pledges to sharply lift economic growth and mend relations with major allies of the United States and Japan.

(Reporting by Yoo Choonsik, editing by Jonathan Thatcher)