Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Japan and China will hold talks in Tokyo late next week on a dispute over ownership and possible joint development of natural gas reserves in the East China Sea, Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said.

``We plan to ask them to halt production at fields and would like to discuss the possibility and details of jointly developing the area,'' Machimura said in Tokyo yesterday, according to the ministry's Web site.

China and Japan have been discussing disputed rights to energy reserves that may include as much as 200 billion cubic meters of gas. The dispute has added to tensions between the countries over visits by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Yasukuni, a Tokyo shrine to war dead that China says glorifies Japan's past militarism because convicted war criminals are among those it honors.

Japan wants China to halt drilling that it says will siphon gas from Japanese territory. China has refused to stop the operations and has instead proposed joint exploration by the two countries. The countries last held talks on the dispute in Beijing in May.

``The time and location for the talks to resolve the East China Sea oil and gas dispute still remain to be negotiated,'' Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, told reporters in Beijing today.

China delayed further discussions on the dispute during the course of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons that were held the Chinese capital for two weeks until Aug. 7, Japan's Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said on Aug. 10.

The gas fields lie in an area between the Chinese city of Shanghai and the southern Japanese island of Okinawa that both say is within their exclusive economic zones.

Japan protested to China on Sept. 20 and yesterday about China's start of crude oil and gas production at a field in the East China Sea, Machimura said.

Production Start

China began producing oil and gas at the Tianwaitian field in the East China Sea, Nakagawa said in Tokyo on Sept. 20. ``We confirmed there was a flare, we aren't sure the flare is from burning oil or gas from the field,'' he said.

The Tianwaitian field is among four in the Xihu Trough, a 59,000 square-kilometer area being drilled by companies including China's Cnooc Ltd. Two of the fields, Chunxiao and Duanqiao, extend over the border into Japan's exclusive economic zone, Nakagawa said on April 1. The fourth field is Canxue.

Japan's government isn't certain that the Tianwaitian field crosses the border, Nakagawa said on Sept. 20. Even so, the field is one of the disputed areas and the Japanese government ``needs to take steps and we are discussing within the government what steps to take,'' Nakagawa said.

Joint Development

Cnooc, China's third-largest oil company, would like to develop natural gas reserves jointly with Japanese companies in the disputed parts of the East China Sea, President Zhou Shouwei said Aug. 30.

Teikoku Oil Co., the biggest producer of natural gas from fields in Japan, said on July 14 it received Japanese government approval to test drill for natural gas and crude oil in an area of the East China Sea. The company may explore in three areas covering a total of 400 square kilometers (155 square miles).

Cnooc is developing the Chunxiao field in the East China Sea, which is located 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) away from the ``middle line'' claimed by Japan, which China's government doesn't recognize.

The Chinese company was scheduled to start pumping gas from platforms in the Chunxiao field this month and deliver the fuel via pipelines to the Ningbo city in the eastern province of Zhejiang a month later, Zhou said Aug. 30.

The Chunxiao project, which extends over about 22,000 square kilometers, can produce as much as 2 billion cubic meters of gas a year, Zhou said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Megumi Yamanaka in Tokyo at myamanaka@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 22, 2005 03:30 EDT