Japan's Seiji Maehara and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met on the sidelines of a regional summit in Vietnam on Friday, boosting hopes that Asia's big powers would begin to heal the wounds from their two-month rift.

But China angrily accused Tokyo of making false statements over the disputed East China Sea islands at the centre of the row, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan only held brief informal talks.

"The one to blame is Japan's newly-appointed foreign minister, Seiji Maehara," the state-run Global Times -- a sister publication of the Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily -- said in a commentary.

"Kan has chosen the wrong guy to represent Japan in international relations. The young and promising new-generation politician proved to be more like a political extremist than a diplomat."

Maehara took up his post shortly after the row first erupted in early September, when Tokyo arrested the Chinese captain of a fishing boat that had collided with two Japanese coastguard vessels in the disputed area.

Both sides claim the potentially resource-rich islets, which are known as the Diaoyus in China and Senkakus in Japan, as their own. The islands are administered by Tokyo.

Maehara piqued Beijing's ire when he said the country's reactions during the course of the dispute had been "hysterical".

The Global Times said his statements "were the most offensive by a Japanese government official in the past decade or two".

"Maehara's right-wing comments have reduced Japan's diplomatic flexibility to zero," it said.

It warned the Japanese diplomat that he should not push his country to counter China's "inevitable" rise, saying the consequences of such a move would be "unbearable for Japan".

Kan has sought to play down the diplomatic drama, saying that the current problems between Asia's top two economies were not "so critical" compared to the turbulence that has marked their long history.

The two leaders agreed in Hanoi to speak at more length in the future and to "continue making efforts on promoting a strategic, mutually beneficial relationship", according to a Japanese official.

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