Japan turns down China proposal on gas
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-08 20:42

Japan said Wednesday that it has rejected China's proposal to jointly develop gas fields near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

China reportedly proposed joint exploration of separate gas deposits during two days of talks in Beijing this week. But Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Tokyo would not go along with that idea.

"The proposal is not the one we can accept," Abe told reporters. "Although we need to closely examine the content of China's proposal, I think it is inconsistent with our previous position."

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso echoed Abe later Wednesday, saying Japan had no intention to jointly develop gas fields near the islands — called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan.

The islands — ceded to Japan by China in an 1895 war, but returned to China after the end of World War II — lie in the East China Sea.

Abe said that during the talks, which ended Tuesday, China proposed to jointly explore gas deposits in two areas, but he declined to give details saying that negotiations were continuing.

Japan has put forth its own plan to jointly develop gas fields in the East China Sea — but the proposal does not include the contentious islands, according to media reports. The government has not disclosed details of the fields, but it is believed to be along a median line Tokyo drew between the two countries, according to reports.

Japanese Foreign Ministry Natural Resources and Energy Agency officials were not immediately available for comment.

While China and Japan are linked by billions of dollars of trade, aid and investment, relations have been strained in the past year because of clashes over their wartime history.

China's foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, on Tuesday repeated Beijing's objections over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a war shrine that honors Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals.

Koizumi rejected the demand that he stop visiting the Yasukuni shrine, repeating to reporters in Tokyo his stance that the visits were "not a diplomatic card."