Those who said Koizumi should visit to the Yasukuni shrine later this year fell to 34 percent from 51 percent, according to the poll conducted by Kyodo News on Friday and Saturday of 1,476 eligible voters with 1,016 responding.

Asked about their views on Japan's bid to improve ties with China, 51 percent said they did not think sufficient effort has been made, far outpacing the 12 percent who said it was adequate.

Already strained ties between Japan and China took another nose dive last week after Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi abruptly cancelled a meeting with Koizumi as part of Beijing's protest against his planned visit to the shrine.

The Shinto sanctuary adjacent to the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo is dedicated to the 2.5 million Japanese who died in the country's wars.

The names of 14 top war criminals from World War II are enshrined there, including those of seven hanged for war crimes, among them wartime premier Hideki Tojo.

Koizumi has visited the Yasukuni shrine each year since taking office in 2001, with his last trip there on January 1, 2004.

Despite growing criticism, Koizumi has hinted at continuing his annual pilgrimage to the controversial shrine.

The visits have been formally protested by China and South Korea, which suffered bloody occupations by Japan up to 1945.

Kaoru Yosano, a senior figure of Koizumi's ruling party, proposed on Sunday to delete the names of the war criminals from Yasukuni and honor them at a separate shrine.

"I think it's correct" to enshrine them separately, Yosono, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Policy Affairs Research Council, said in a television interview.

"Japan and China should realistically solve what has actually happened and get some satisfactory results," Yosano said.

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