Understanding reached, but devil is in the detail on gas row

China and Japan are hopeful they can resolve a row over oil and gas exploration rights in the East China Sea before President Hu Jintao's scheduled visit to Tokyo in the spring - even though they cannot agree on details of a joint development of the area.

Yesterday, a Japanese spokesman said both sides would hold vice-ministerial level talks in the coming months to discuss the issue.

China and Japan yesterday signed a common understanding on the East China Sea, in which they pledged to make the area a 'peace and friendship' zone and agreed to work out a resolution.

But the spokesman admitted that while it was easy to reach an understanding, it would be more difficult to fix details and agree on where the joint work should be carried out. 'There are two points for this issue: where to develop this project and, second, modality of the joint programme,' the spokesman said.

He said Tokyo was optimistic progress could be made on the theory, or modality, of an agreement.

'It means we have more difficulties deciding where to develop the joint project with the higher-level talks before the visit of Hu Jintao to Japan next spring.'