Compiled from wire reports Fujitsu Ltd. and IBM Corp. are negotiating a tieup involving the joint development and use of software and technical cooperation for computer servers, Fujitsu said Thursday.

"Our two companies have begun talks on the possibility of cooperation in a wide range of areas, including hardware and software, as well as tieups in individual businesses," Fujitsu said in a brief statement.

Fujitsu said details and any specifics have yet to be decided.

The comment came after a Japanese economic daily reported on the tieup talks Thursday.

In late September, Fujitsu President Naoyuki Akikusa and IBM President and Chief Operating Officer Samuel Palmisano held a top-level meeting in Tokyo and agreed to set up the talks, sources familiar with the situation said.

The high-tech giants aim to seal an agreement on the partnership by the end of this year, the sources said.

The daily reported that through the tieup, Fujitsu and IBM hope to reduce costs by more than 30 billion yen at a time when sales of personal computers and other hardware products remain depressed.

It noted, however, that the market for information systems continues to hold firm, with annual sales in Japan alone surging past 10 trillion yen and looking to record double-digit growth this year.

This market is also brisk in both Europe and the United States.

IBM is considering sharing its PC server technology for backbone systems with Fujitsu, while the Japanese company is thinking about supplying routers to IBM.

The two also aim to mutually supply electronic parts worth tens of billions of yen a year, the report says.

A linkup could mark a major turnaround from years of rivalry and copyright disputes that have haunted the two firms, who have been at odds since the '70s.

Fujitsu and IBM had since the 1970s been keen rivals in general-purpose computers. They were also engaged in lawsuits over Fujitsu's alleged infringement of computer software developed by IBM for 15 years from 1982.

With the slowdown in the information technology sector worsening, the companies appeared to be brushing aside their rivalry and adopting a cooperative approach instead.

Among other Japanese computer makers, Hitachi Ltd. agreed on the joint development of servers with IBM in March.