China and Japan have agreed to resume talks next week on their rival East China Sea claims while a meeting between their foreign ministers is also possible, a Japanese embassy official said.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry release Tuesday also confirmed that the two sides have agreed to meet.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo (L) shakes hands with his Japanese counterpart Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi before their talks at the Iikura House in Tokyo in this February 10, 2006 photo. [Reuters]

The developments came during a series of meetings this week between their vice foreign ministers in Beijing and the southwestern Chinese city of Guiyang, said Masaru Okada, an official in the embassy's political section.

Okada said the vice foreign ministers -- Shotaro Yachi of Japan and China's Dai Bingguo -- had agreed a fifth round of talks on claims to oil and gas-rich sections of the East China Sea would be held next week in Tokyo.

Since October 2004, China and Japan have convened four rounds of consultations on the East China Sea issues.The fourth round was held in Beijing in March but no major progress was made.

Japan's team had also been pushing this week for a meeting soon of their foreign ministers, an encounter China has been reluctant to agree to amid anger over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a war shrine.

"Both sides have agreed to try to find a date to meet," Okada said in reference to a possible meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso.

However he emphasized that the Chinese side had agreed only to look for a date, and that a definite meeting had not yet been confirmed.

According to the press release from China's foreign ministry, the two sides discussed the possibility of setting up a meeting between their foreign ministers "in the near future at multi-lateral occasions."

The Japanese delegation had suggested a possible meeting between Li and Aso on the sidelines of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue to be held in Qatar on May 23 and 24, according to Okada.

China suspended top-level bilateral meetings with Japan in October last year over Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 top war criminals among 2.5 million war dead.

The release said Dai also reiterated Chinese President Hu Jintao's remarks on China-Japan relations made in a meeting with the heads of seven Japan-China friendship organizations on March 31, saying that China hopes the two countries should join efforts to remove the political obstacles out of the way of improving and developing bilateral ties.

Dai especially pointed out that Japan should take corresponding measures to work with China to reach the common goal, according to the press release.

China has made it clear that the major obstacle in China-Japan relations is Japanese leaders' insistence on visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead as well as 14 class A criminals of the World War II.

China and South Korea say the shrine visits prove Japan has not truly repented for its wartime atrocities. Koizumi insists he visits the shrine for personal reasons.

The territorial dispute in the East China Sea, where the two countries' 200-natical-mile exclusive economic zones overlap, is another long-running saga that also continues to drag down relations.

After the last round of talks, China said it would "never accept" a plan by Japan to jointly develop energy reserves in the sea based on what Tokyo says is the maritime boundary.

China does not recognize the boundary, which divides the overlap in half, while Tokyo argues that its neighbor could tap Japanese resources even if it digs from its side.

China began test-drilling in the East China Sea in 2003.

The talks between Yachi and Dai began on Sunday. The Japanese delegation is due to head home on Wednesday.