Source: The Australian

KEVIN Rudd's department knew Japan would be upset at being left off the Prime Minister's first major overseas visit, but no ministerial attempts were made to soothe relations.

The perceived snub from the Prime Minister's decision to visit China but not Japan as part of his 18-day five-nation tour in March and last month sparked a diplomatic rift.

But officials from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet told a Senate estimates committee yesterday that Mr Rudd did not attempt to contact his Japanese counterpart, Yasuo Fukuda, until a fortnight ago.

"Without making a comment on the weight to which you've attached to those concerns, obviously there is regular contact with Japan through our embassy and the embassy at all sorts of levels," Mr Rudd's senior foreign policy adviser, Hugh Borrowman, told Liberal senator Russell Trood.

To the extent that there may have been such concerns, they would have been addressed in that fashion."

Mr Rudd and Mr Fukuda on May 14 had their first telephone conversation since the November 24 election, despite months of controversy over Australia's attack on Japanese whaling and Mr Rudd's trip.

Efforts had been made to set up a phone call between the two from election night until January 10, but scheduling difficulties made it impossible. No further attempts were made until the phone call this month, Mr Borrowman said.

While no formal complaints had been made, PM&C official Frank Leverett conceded Japan was concerned by Mr Rudd's decision to visit China first. "Whenever you plan visits, you go to one country before another, there can be issues around it, and I think around this particular case, yes, it was understood there would be obviously some attention given to that," he said.

But ... it becomes a matter of programming and where one can put those visits together, and that's what was done."

The committee was told that the US and Britain were always on the agenda for the trip, while China was planned for later in the year.

Mr Rudd was planning a north Asia trip in July, taking in Japan, China and South Korea. But Japan was unable to host a bilateral meeting in July, while China had invited Mr Rudd to the Boao summit in April.

"So as part of the mix of things China came forward," Mr Borrowman said. "I don't think it's right to say South Korea or any other place has dropped off the program."