DHAKA: The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea are meeting later for their first talks in three years.

The meeting in Seoul is likely to focus on ways to ease regional tensions over territorial and diplomatic disputes.

The three states have strong economic ties but relations still suffer from unresolved issues dating back to Japan's actions in World War Two, reports BBC.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said he hoped the ministers would be able to "look forward into the future".

The three men - Japan's Fumio Kishida, China's Wang Yi and South Korea's Yun Byung-se - are meeting in South Korea's capital later on Saturday.

Foreign ministers from the three countries last met in April 2012, for their sixth annual trilateral meeting.

It was cancelled the following year after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe angered China and South Korea by visiting a shrine that honours Japan's war dead, including a number of senior war criminals.

Japan colonised the Korean peninsula and occupied parts of China during World War Two and both countries have accused Tokyo of failing to adequately atone for its aggression.

BDST: 1147 HRS, MAR 21, 2015