China and Japan will begin consultations anew tomorrow to try and resolve the ongoing dispute about gas exploration rights in the East China Sea. The talks, seeking to draft a joint development proposal before the autumn, should give body to the consensus reached by Premier Wen Jiabao and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Japan last month.

The two leaders agreed on speeding up consultations with the aim of coming to an understanding on joint development.

The two governments have respectively nominated Hu Zhengyue, director of the Foreign Ministry Asian Affairs Department and Kenichiro Sasae, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau to lead the delegations.

Japanese sources revealed that Hu and Sasae would broaden their discussion platform to overall Sino-Japanese relations after the debate on the East China Sea issue.

The talks have garnered much attention as both countries seem determined to work together. However, seven earlier rounds of talks since 2004 proved fruitless.

According to Japanese media, Tokyo has proposed a broader plan which would see the two nations jointly tap natural gas resources over a much wider area straddling the Japan-designated median line.

Beijing's plan calls for more limited cooperation with joint work confined to the northern and southern areas of the East China Sea, a proposal that dismissed by Tokyo.

The issue was potentially laid to rest during Wen's visit when both countries compromised and agreed on an extended geographical area of cooperation which was acceptable to both sides.

Analysts say China and Japan must find a way to work together despite frictions caused by historical and territorial quarrels.

Feng Zhaokui, a senior researcher on Sino-Japanese ties at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, sees the issue as a yardstick for the future evolution of bilateral relations, adding that "the two countries surely need to explore ways to cooperate rather than compete for energy resources."

The East China Sea covers an area of more than 700,000 square km with an estimated 7.2 billion tons of gas and oil resources lying untapped beneath its surface.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2007)