Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan's trade and industry minister, said he wants to avoid further ``meaningless'' discussions with China over a dispute about gas exploration in the East China Sea.

High-level talks, proposed by China and held in Beijing yesterday, ended without any decision on how to proceed.

``I don't know why these discussions were even held,'' Nakagawa told reporters in Tokyo. ``I don't plan to get involved in further talks that end without resolution.''

A group led by CNOOC Ltd., China's biggest offshore oil and gas producer, and including China Petrochemical Corp. started drilling in the East China Sea last October, prompting Japanese concern that its share of the gas may be siphoned off.

``It looks like China is steadily making progress with development of the gas fields, but we've received little explanation of what's happening on their side,'' Nakagawa said.

The Chunxiao field, the first to be developed in the area known as the Xihu Trough, is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Okinawa, the main island in Japan's southernmost prefecture, and straddles the border between the two nations.

China and Japan haven't agreed on the exact location of their maritime border.

Unocal Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group withdrew from the venture last month. CNOOC said their departure would not prevent production from starting up on schedule by mid-2005.

To contact the reporters on this story: Meggan Richard in Tokyo at mrichard3@bloomberg.net. Fumishige Asano in Tokyo at fasano@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 25, 2004 23:49 EDT