China, Japan vow to solve sea dispute: report
BEIJING - CHINA and Japan have pledged to work towards settling a long-standing row over the gas-rich East China Sea after two days of high-level talks here, state media reported.
Japanese Vice-Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi led discussions during the most recent round of the bilateral 'strategic dialogue,' the Xinhua news agency said late on Saturday.
Both sides 'should continue to make efforts in accordance with the consensus reached by the leaders of both countries, to strive for the early proper settlement of the issue', Xinhua quoted the Chinese foreign ministry as saying.
Japan and China, two of the world's largest energy importers, have failed in a dozen rounds of talks since 2004 to agree on how to share lucrative gas resources in the East China Sea.
China started drilling in 2003 and Japan has charged that Beijing may be siphoning off what it considers its own gas reserves.
During a visit to China in December, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to seek a resolution on the gas dispute at an early date, although no major breakthrough has yet been made.
Mr Hu is expected to visit Japan in the next few months.
'President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan this year will be a historic visit that will carry on the past and open a way for the future,' the Chinese foreign ministry said, according to Xinhua.
'The two sides are ready to strengthen cooperation to ensure the complete success of the visit,' it said.
The delegates had also been widely expected to discuss a recent food scare in Japan involving toxic dumplings imported from China.
However, Xinhua made no mention of the issue in its reports on the two days of talks in Beijing.
China and Japan have launched a joint investigation into the dumpling scare that so far has resulted in 10 Japanese consumers being poisoned by pesticides after eating tainted dumplings imported from China.
Mr Hu dispatched his top envoy Tang Jiaxuan to Tokyo to address the issue and last week expressed sympathy to the Japanese people who fell ill. -- AFP
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