TOKYO (AFP) -- New Prime Minister Shinzo Abe got down to work Wednesday on his agenda to build a more muscular Japan but faced immediate skepticism, with media saying his cabinet line-up lacked enthusiasm for change.

"I'll do my best," Abe, 52, told reporters as he headed to his office for his first full day of work since replacing veteran leader Junichiro Koizumi.

Abe, the first premier born after World War II, is known for his nationalist views and has vowed to revise Japan's U.S.-imposed pacifist constitution.

But he has also pledged to work to repair ties with China and South Korea strained by Koizumi's visits to a war shrine.

"We want to hold summit meetings as soon as possible between Japan and China and between Japan and South Korea and have these bilateral relationships serve as a cornerstone of stability in East Asia," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said.

His conciliatory remarks were cautiously reciprocated by the neighboring countries. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised "relentless efforts" to improve ties, while South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun called for "future-oriented" relations with Japan.

Abe, who came to prominence as a hardliner on North Korea, has sought to strengthen the role of his office along a White House model.

He appointed a first national security adviser, Yuriko Koike, a high-profile lawmaker known for her hawkish views toward neighboring countries and expertise on the Middle East.

But major newspapers warned Abe's choice of cabinet ministers reflected the old way of alloting cabinet posts as rewards for services in party politics, not a strategy to put the country's economic and diplomatic house in order.

"What message has the new prime minister sent in his cabinet line-up? Youth, freshness, challenge... None of them is very clear," the influential and liberal Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial. The conservative mass-circulation daily Yomiuri Shimbun said: "Just judging from the line-up, the direction of his (economic) growth strategy or his economic and financial policies is not necessarily clear to be seen."

"We cannot erase our fears about whether he will have the political clout to be able to get the better of the bureaucrats," it added.

Both leading dailies pointed out that Abe, a political thoroughbred with limited experience in government, handpicked four politicians who had led a bandwagon to push him to power within the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Abe also gave four posts to politicians of his LDP faction, despite the maverick Koizumi's effort to rid the party of factionalism during his long tenure of five and a half years.

Taro Aso, who had competed against Abe in the LDP race for the candidacy, remained as foreign minister as his policy line was seen close to Abe's.

But Sadakazu Tanigaki, another loser in the party election, lost his post as finance minister and none of his factional comrades got a post after he sparred with Abe by calling for tax hikes and an end to visits to the Yasukuni war shrine. "We cannot feel enthusiasm for reform in the new cabinet line-up," said another daily, Mainichi Shimbun. "It cannot be helped if one says 'internal logic' had its way. There is a fear that his youth will be seen as inexperience and immaturity."

However, the conservative Sankei Shimbun was full of praise for the new premier.

"The road ahead may not be easy for the Abe government as he is vowing to review the post-war system. We hope he carries out his intentions without compromise," it said.