The Chinese are furious at a revised Japanese school textbook they say whitewashes atrocities during Japan's 1931-45 occupation of China and strongly opposes Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat alongside Beijing on the U.N. Security Council.

"The Chinese government has never done anything for which it has to apologize to the Japanese people," Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told his visiting Japanese counterpart, Nobutaka Machimura, at a meeting.

"The main problem now is that the Japanese government has done a series of things that have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people ... especially in its treatment of history."

Machimura flew to China Sunday to try to heal relations between the two Asian powerhouses which are at their worst in decades. He demanded China deal with the protests swiftly even as they spread from Shanghai Saturday to cities across the country Sunday.

Japan is asking for compensation for attacks on Japanese property in China and an official apology, but Li did not offer either, Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima told reporters.

Machimura said it was unfortunate that China refused to apologize, Kyodo news agency said, adding that Machimura, in his meeting with Li, extended an invitation for Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to visit Japan.

He said Japan and China would in May discuss their dispute over exploration for natural gas in the East China Sea.

THIRD WEEKEND

China denies tacitly encouraging the anti-Japanese unrest and has pledged to protect Japanese businesses and nationals.

In the third weekend of violent protests, thousands marched Saturday to Japan's consulate in Shanghai, smashing windows, pelting it with paint bombs and eggs and attacking Japanese restaurants along the way.

China's official Xinhua news agency put the number of protesters in Shanghai at 20,000. Two Japanese were slightly injured in the city, home to thousands of Japanese firms and about 34,000 Japanese expatriates, the Japanese consulate in Shanghai said.

Hong Kong Cable Television said protests were held in about 10 Chinese cities, including southern Dongguan and southwestern Chengdu.

Several thousand people marched in Hong Kong and as many as 2,000 people marched through the streets of the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, Kyodo news agency said. Demonstrators hurled bottles and eggs at the Japanese consulate in the city.

In Beijing, hundreds of paramilitary police guarded the ambassador's residence or waited to take up positions for a second straight day.

Some 2,000 Chinese workers "staged a violent strike" at Japanese electronics company Taiyo Yuden Co. in Dongguan, Kyodo said. About 10,000 protested in southern Shenzhen, bordering Hong Kong, Hong Kong's ATV television said.

BACKLASH FEARS

The violence has raised concerns about a backlash in Japan, where police have tightened security at the Chinese embassy, consulates and residences after several incidents of harassment.

A man hurled a bottle at the Chinese consulate in Osaka, western Japan, Sunday and set himself on fire when officers tried to subdue him, police said. Right-wing groups were driving around Tokyo in trucks fitted with loudspeakers, but riot police prevented them from approaching the Chinese embassy.

Machimura proposed a bilateral meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi later this week when the two are in Indonesia for a multilateral meeting, Takashima said.

Li told him China would consider it.

Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said the violence in China could hurt the Asian giant's global image and economy.

The downturn in Sino-Japanese ties comes at a time when rivalry and mistrust are festering despite economic ties that generate $178 billion in annual trade.

Among the many matters tangling ties are competition for energy resources, mutual concern about military strategies and rivalry over leadership in Asian regional economic integration.

Tension grew last week after Japan announced that it had begun procedures to allocate rights for test-drilling in a disputed area of the East China Sea.

Relations between the two countries, often plagued by rows over the past, soured after Koizumi took office in 2001 and made annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where convicted war criminals are enshrined along with Japan's nearly 2.5 million war dead.