Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia, a Japanese government official said Wednesday.

The talks would be the latest sign of a thaw in relations between the two countries.

The Chinese-Japanese ties have chilled in recent years due to feuds over the two neighbors' wartime past as well as territorial rows and regional rivalry.

A meeting between the two leaders could promote a cautious rapprochement that began when Abe and Xi met at a summit in Beijing late last year.

Abe is set to speak at the summit, which will be watched for hints about whether he wants to dilute past apologies over World War Two. Such a dilution would not sit well with China, Japan's war-time enemy and main regional rival.

Xi is attending the same summit in Jakarta and Abe has made it clear he wants to meet the Chinese leader in the Indonesian capital.

Leaders from more than 80 nations opened the two-day summit in Jakarta on Wednesday. The event marks the 60th anniversary of the Bandung Conference in 1955, when leaders from newly independent Asian and African states expressed their opposition to colonialism.