BEIJING -- China's trade with Japan topped 207.36 billion US dollars last year, up 12.4 percent from 2005, according to the General Administration of Customs.

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The volume more than doubled the 101.91 billion US dollars in 2002, and was near 200 times the 1.04 billion US dollars in 1972 when the two nations established diplomatic relations.

Bilateral trade from January to October accounted for 17 percent of Japan's total trade volume, 5.2 percent higher than that in 2001 and only 0.5 percentage point lower than that with the United States.

However, Japan, China's third largest trading partner after the European Union and the United States, saw a decline in its contribution to China's foreign trade during the past few years.

The customs said it contributed to 11.8 percent of China's total foreign trade in 2006, down 5.4 percent from 2001.

China recorded a record 1.76 trillion US dollars in foreign trade last year,up 23.8 percent from 2005.

Analysts predict trade between the two nations will grow faster this year as their political ties begin to warm up.

China's exports of machinery and electronic products to Japan rose 88 percent from 2001 to 2006 when China was endeavoring to improve its export structure, according to the customs, while giving no details.