Japan should not deny a visa for former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui if he makes another request to visit the country for medical treatment, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was quoted as saying Friday by Taiwan's visiting Nationalist Party leader.

Lin Fong-Cheng, the party's secretary general, told a news conference at a Tokyo hotel that he met Mori, former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, and other senior Liberal Democratic Party members to strengthen ties with Japanese lawmakers.

During the talks, Mori told Lin that Japan should issue a visa from a humanitarian standpoint and noted that all major Japanese newspapers supported allowing Lee's visit in late April for a heart checkup, Lin said.

When asked about reports that Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka told Chinese officials that Japan will not issue a visa for Lee again, Lin said that Taiwan hopes Tokyo will "take a positive stance from a humanitarian standpoint" because Lee has no political agenda and is truly ill.

The opposition Nationalist Party, which was defeated by President Chen Shui-bian's Democratic Progressive Party last year, is hoping to strengthen relations with political parties in other countries and plans to set up a young lawmakers' federation between Japan and Taiwan this summer, Lin said.