China has turned down a Japanese request to stop its exploration of a gas field in the East China Sea, but the two Asian powers agreed to continue talks over the dispute, Japanese officials said on Tuesday. A Japanese delegate to the two-day talks that began in Beijing on Monday said China had offered a proposal to jointly develop the gas field in the disputed waters in the East China Sea, according to Reuters. "We pointed out problematic points about it and we told them it was hard for us to accept it as is," Kenichiro Sasae, the head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asia and Oceania Bureau, told reporters in Beijing after Tuesday's talks. "But Japan and China agreed to continue to discuss what we can do about it." No details of the proposal were immediately available. The disagreement over exploration of the seabed between the energy-hungry East Asian neighbours for oil and gas has added to tensions between Beijing and Tokyo related to Japan's 1931-45 invasion and occupation of parts of China. China criticised Japan for jumping the gun and starting to award exploration rights to private companies. Japan responded saying Beijing's going ahead with construction in the region was "outrageous". --More 1119 Local Time 0819 GMT
