Japan and China have agreed to carry out joint research and development on next-generation Internet technology to create a global standard.

They will carry out the three-year technological project on the Internet Protocol version 6, starting this fiscal year.

The framework agreement was signed Thursday in Tokyo by Katsusada Hirose, vice minister of economy, trade and industry, and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Chunzheng, vice minister of the State Development Planning Commission.

Combining Japan's high-level technology and China's huge number of potential Internet users can help to make a global standard a reality, a ministry official said.

Under the project, to be joined by academics and corporate researchers, the two countries will build a test network for the latest Internet protocol.

The test network will link the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and will be connected to a similar network in Japan, according to the ministry.