Japan PM Abe shakes hands with China's Xi at G20

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands and exchanged words politely on Thursday on the sidelines of a G20 summit meeting, a Japanese official said, in an unexpected show of cordiality amid strained ties.

Relations between the world's second- and third-largest economies have been troubled for months because of a row over tiny islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.