The 160 lawmakers, including eight top government officials and their assistants, prayed at the Yasukuni Shrine, which reveres 2.5 million war dead, including executed war criminals, marking an annual spring festival, said organizer Yoshinobu Shimamura, a former agricultural minister. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda did not visit.

The visits have long strained Tokyo's relations with Asian neighbors who say the action defends Japan's pre-1945 militarism.

The pilgrimage comes at a sensitive time - the day after the South Korean president's visit and only two weeks before a planned trip by the Chinese president.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was here Monday for talks with Fukuda. Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit is scheduled for May 6-10, the first by a Chinese president in a decade.

Shimamura, however, said Tuesday's visits were an annual event, not intentionally timed to fall between the visits by the leaders of South Korea and China, both victims of Japan's pre-1945 aggression.

"We paid the respects as an appropriate action as the Japanese, but we have no other intentions. (The visits) should not cause any problems," Shimamura said after the prayer.

On Monday, Fukuda and Lee acknowledged the rift between the two countries but pledged to shelve their differences for the sake of deeper cooperation in economy, cultural exchanges and effort to achieve North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

"We must face our past but also walk toward the future by sharing a common vision," Lee said.

The shrine also is at the center of a recent controversy over the documentary film "Yasukuni" by a Chinese director. Activists have called the film anti-Japanese, and theaters have canceled planned screenings over threats and fear of attacks by ultra-rightwing activists.

China and South Korea have demanded Japanese leaders refrain from making Yasukuni visits. Japan's relations with the two countries have plunged to their lowest during Junichiro Koizumi's 2001-2005 prime ministership over his repeated visits.

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