Japan and China kicked off a two-day working-level meeting Friday on contentious gas projects in the East China Sea with hopes that they can agree to jointly tap the resources.

But Foreign Ministry officials said the two sides needed to overcome many hurdles, citing China's repeated refusal to meet Japan's demand to provide survey data on the gas-rich area and halt its drilling until they reach an agreement on such exploitation.

"This issue requires a quick resolution based on a belief that the two nations will turn the East China Sea from a sea of conflict into a sea of cooperation," Kenichiro Sasae, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, said in an opening statement.