Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan will visit the Vietnamese capital for meetings of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations starting Thursday and a wider 16-nation East Asia Summit (EAS) on Saturday.

In Hanoi, Kan also plans to hold talks on Sunday with his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan Dung, and "discuss an early signing of the pact between the two governments," a Japanese official said on condition of anonymity.

Japan and Vietnam have already reached a basic agreement on a nuclear energy pact.

Asked if the joint development of rare earth minerals will be one of the subjects, the Japanese official said it will be "highly likely," without elaborating.

The Japan-Vietnam summit follows a halt in shipments of rare earth minerals from China to Japan last month, according to Japanese industry sources, amid a simmering diplomatic row over disputed islets in the East China Sea.

Without fresh imports from China Japan's stockpile of rare earth minerals, which are used in the manufacture of high-tech goods, could dry up by March or April, a senior Japanese government official has warned.

"I have actively raised the subject in meetings with leaders of resource-rich countries, such as the possibility of jointly developing the resources," Kan earlier told reporters about rare earth minerals.

China controls more than 95 percent of the global market for the minerals.

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