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LEAD: China proposes gas exploration with Japan around Senkaku Islands+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 8_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING INFO) China has proposed to Japan that they jointly explore gas and oil in two areas in the East China Sea, including one around the disputed Senkaku Islands, at the latest bilateral talks in Beijing, Japanese government sources said Wednesday. During the two-day meeting that ended Tuesday, Beijing also suggested that the two countries could together tap natural resources in the sea area farther north than the Japan-proposed "median line" to separate their 200-nautical-mile economic waters, the sources said. Japan had earlier presented an offer to conduct joint development of four gas fields near the median line, but China's latest offer covers the northern and southern areas of those fields. The talks, the fourth of their kind, were held from Monday in a bid to resolve a row over gas exploration rights in the disputed waters in the East China Sea. Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Wednesday the government will reject the new offer. The two countries have agreed that they will hold the next round of gas talks in Tokyo as soon as possible, but a tough road ahead is expected. Japan, China and Taiwan separately claim the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, which are called Diaoyu in China and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan, and are controlled by Japan. The area around them is rich in marine resources and considered strategically important. The areas for joint exploration included in China's new offer are waters on the Japanese side, or east of the median line, near the Senkaku Islands and slightly on the Chinese side, or west of the line, in the northern East China Sea, according to the sources. The dispute stems from an unsettled demarcation in the sea where the two countries' exclusive economic zones overlap. Beijing does not recognize the Japan-claimed median line, as it insists it has rights to marine resources east of the line, to the edge of the continental shelf near Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa. Both the continental shelf and median line demarcation principles are accepted under the international law. Tokyo is concerned about several ongoing Chinese gas projects on the Chinese side of the median line, which it believes could siphon off resources that could be buried under Japan-claimed waters because of their proximity to the line. |