Beijing and Tokyo are planning for vice-ministerial talks to break the Diaoyu Islands deadlock, but observers say spats over sovereignty issues will continue as negotiations take place.

In addition, US Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns will fly in to mediate the dispute with Tokyo and Beijing on his tour to Asia next week, a move experts said is aimed at collecting information and shaping future policies.

Even before the vice-ministerial talks, Luo Zhaohui, director of the Foreign Ministry's department of Asian affairs, was invited to Tokyo on Thursday to meet his Japanese counterpart Shinsuke Sugiyama, director general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.