The transport ministry said Friday it would probably make a decision by the end of the month on whether to extend Narita International Airport's second runway north -- instead of the original plan for a southward extension.

The ministry is leaning toward extending it north because the airport operator has made little progress in negotiations with landowners who hold plots just south of the runway.

"Although Narita's operator has made great efforts in dealing with the landowners in the Toho district, it is regrettable that there have been no tangible results," Kazuo Kitagawa, minister of land, infrastructure and transport, told reporters after Masahito Kurono, president of Narita International Airport Corp., spoke to him on the state of negotiations.