The government immediately distanced itself from Masahiro Morioka, parliamentary secretary for agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Morioka said "war criminals" was just a label imposed by the US-led victors of World War II.

"A war is one form of politics and (Japan) went to war under the rules set by international law," Morioka told a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party, as cited by Jiji Press.

"Soldiers fight to kill one another under certain rules. This is not something that requires apologies," Morioka was quoted as saying.

He justified Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's controversial pilgrimages to the Yasukuni shrine that honors Japanese war dead including 14 top, or Class-A, war criminals.

"Class-A, Class-B, Class-C war criminals were decided at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. It was a one-sided trial fixed by the occupation forces, who alleged and claimed things like peace and crimes against humanity," Morioka said.

"It is not as if victors should wield justice and losers are evil," he said.

"The bereaved families of the Class-A receive pensions. Domestically they (Class-A convicts) are no longer criminals," he said.

"It would leave a root of trouble for the future if the diplomacy of the Liberal Democratic Party regards it as bad to honor Class-A war criminals at Yasukuni shrine," Morioka said.

Relations between the Asian nations plummeted again this week after visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi cancelled a meeting she had arranged with Koizumi due to the Japanese leader's defense of his Yasukuni pilgrimage.

The remarks of Morioka, who has little say in Asian diplomacy, were out of the mainstream for Japanese lawmakers.

The comments "were a misinterpretation of the facts and differ from the government viewpoint," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the government spokesman.

"One lawmaker expressed his own thoughts," Hosoda told a news conference.

Koizumi, asked whether his visits to Yasukuni were seen abroad as honoring war criminals, said: "Not all foreigners see it that way."

"My shrine visits are not related" to war criminals, Koizumi said, adding that the government accepted the verdicts of the Tokyo trials held after World War II.

Takenori Kanzaki, head of Buddhist-oriented New Komeito which provides criticial support to Koizumi's coalition, attacked Morioka.

"I wish a person holding a public post would act with moderation," Kanzaki said.

Koizumi justifies his Yasukuni visits saying that Japan is firmly pacifist. In April he repeated an apology for suffering Japan caused in World War II.

But China says he must put his words into deeds.

"The critical key is to link verbal remorse and apology with real action. If that is done China-Japan relations will definitely start getting back on track," Chinese Ambassador to Japan, Wang Yi, said.

"When they see a visit to a place enshrining leaders of war aggression, victims of the war should naturally doubt that Japan full-heartedly feels remorse," he said.

"We are still finding chemical weapons left by the Japanese military 60 years ago. We also have the issues of comfort women and forced labor," he said, referring to Japanese troops forcing women into prostitution and enslaving workers.

Relations between the two nations soured last month after Japan approved a nationalist history textbook seen as playing down such atrocities. Violent rallies broke out in China.

Japanese officials have accused China of deliberately whipping up trouble to stop Japan's cherished bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, whose make-up still represents the power balance at the end of World War II.

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