Japan's foreign minister flew into South Korea on Wednesday amid a diplomatic row over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to a controversial war shrine.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung cancelled a planned meeting with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi while former wartime sex slaves called for Japan to apologise.

Fourteen war criminals are among those honoured at the shrine

Mr Koizumi sparked anger across Asia on Tuesday when he visited Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine for the third year in a row.

The shrine is dedicated to Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who was hanged for war crimes in 1948.

South Korea and China were occupied by Japan in the last century and regard the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism.

Ms Kawaguchi arrived in Seoul on Wednesday for two-day talks on how to defuse the crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Her cancelled meeting with Mr Kim, who steps down from office next month, was meant as a courtesy call, but the president's office said there was a problem with his schedule.

Ms Kawaguchi still met her South Korean counterpart, Choi Sung-hong, but was expected to receive a frosty welcome.

"Koizumi's visit to the shrine is a serious diplomatic issue, although that must not hurt joint efforts by South Korea and Japan to solve the nuclear crisis," a foreign ministry official said.

Angry neighbours

On Thursday the minister is due to meet President-elect Roh Moo-hyun, whose spokesman has described Mr Koizumi's action as "regretful".

But Mr Koizumi insisted his shrine visit would not damage Japan's ties with its neighbours.

Outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korean women held a weekly protest over the Japanese use of sex slaves during World War II.

"I suffered so much that if I see him (Koizumi), I want to bite him because I am angry," said Yoo Soon-mahn, a former "comfort woman" who was among several dozen protesters.

Japanese media said Mr Koizumi probably timed his visit to the shrine to take place before Mr Roh took office.

Mr Koizumi sparked outrage when he first visited the shrine as prime minister in August 2001, two days before the anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.

Last year, hoping to lessen the controversy, he made an unannounced visit in April. But he was again roundly criticised as having renewed painful memories of Japan's wartime conquest of its Asian neighbours.