Three days before US President Barack Obama is set to meet Prime Minister Naoto Kan in New York, Biden stressed the fundamental nature of relations with Japan in US Asia-Pacific policy.

"There is an emerging relationship that we have to get right between the United States and China... frankly, I don't know how that relationship can be made right other than going through Tokyo," Biden said.

"I don't know how it works without our partner in that part of the world."

Biden told the US-Japan Council's annual conference here that Tokyo was crucial to solving the crisis on the Korean peninsula, other regional security issues and social and political challenges.

"It seems to be that we sometimes of late have been too quick to focus on one relationship which is critically important," he said, referring to China, though arguing that Obama's outreach to Beijing had been making progress.

At the same time, Biden said the American people also had to understand that relations with Japan were the "linchpin" of what Washington could get done in the region.

Earlier Monday, Japan said it regretted China's decision to suspend high-level exchanges over Tokyo's arrest of a Chinese boat captain in disputed waters, urging Beijing not to let the spat ruin their relationship.

Beijing on Sunday had threatened "strong counter-measures" after Japan extended the detention of the boat captain accused of intentionally ramming his trawler into two Japanese patrol vessels in the East China Sea.

Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said that the flare-up was "unfortunate" in light of efforts between China and Japan to repair relations in recent years.

"Good relations between China and Japan are in our interest. It's in the interest of everybody else in the region," Steinberg said.

"The important thing is to sustain dialogue and to recognize that when you have complex situations like this, that engagement is the best way to move forward," Steinberg said at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Japan seized the captain near an island chain claimed by both countries as well as Taiwan -- an area with rich fishing grounds as well as possible oil and gas deposits.

Obama is due to meet Kan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, on a day when he is also due to meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The United States stations nearly 50,000 troops in Japan, which it is obliged to defend under a security treaty.

earlier related report
Russia faces shortage of conscripts this year: report
Moscow (AFP) Sept 20, 2010 - Russia's army faces a 15-25 percent shortage of conscripts this year, a newspaper report said Monday, leaving the military understaffed in the midst of a government reform drive.

Less than 550,000 men will be drafted into the army this year, bringing its ranks to 750,000-850,000 troops -- short of the million-man army foreseen in planning, the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported, citing official estimates.

The officer in charge of the army draft, Colonel Alexei Knyazev, told the paper some 133,000 young men were evading the draft.

In an attempt to boost the poor numbers, the military has already begun calling up conscripts, although the Kremlin has not yet announced the start of the fall draft period, the paper said.

Last year, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev complained that over 40 percent of those eligible for military service were not fit enough, and draft dodging is widespread across the country today.

All Russian men aged 18 to 27 are required to serve one year in the military.

In practice however, men go to great length to avoid the grueling year of service by exploiting deferments, enrolling in university and sometimes purposefully failing the physical exam.

Often, the exemptions are facilitated by bribes.

Russia has begun to implement sweeping plans to modernize its ailing army by slashing a bloated officer corps and reforming its Soviet-style command structure.

But under the plans, three out of four servicemen would still be conscripts, Medvedev said.

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