TEHRAN (IRNA) -- Iran has called on Japan to clarify within a week its official position on stalled negotiations over the development of its major oil project of Azadegan, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported on Monday.

Kyodo news agency said Iran has sent an official letter to a Japanese consortium that had been previously awarded certain rights by Tehran to develop the Azadegan field, telling the consortium that it had only by next Monday, December 15, to participate in a tender over the project.

Meanwhile, Japan's Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told Reuters on Monday that Tokyo needs to make a decision over Azadegan project if Tehran has set a deadline over the issue.

"If there has been some kind of timing set, I believe a decision will have to be made in line with that," Nakagawa said. "But we are not aware if that (December 15) is final or not."

Iran had offered preferential rights to the consortium during President Mohammad Khatami's visit to Japan in 2000 to develop Azadegan -- Iran's biggest oil field -- for 2.8 billion dollars.

The consortium comprises Japan's Tomen Corp., Inpex Corp., and Japan Petroleum Exploration Company.

Japan in return for the rights had pledged to grant a three-billion-dollar credit line to Iran over three years.

However, it has so far failed to sign an agreement with Iran over the issue apparently under US pressure to withdraw from the lucrative deal.

The deadline for an Iran-Japan deal over Azadegan expired at the end of June.

Accordingly, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh in September said that Iran has cancelled Japan's preferential rights of Japan to develop Azadegan oil field.

This was followed by later announcements that Iran would hold a limited tender for the development of the Azadegan oil field.

Director of the Engineering Department of the National Iranian Oil Engineering and Development Company, Ali-Akbar Vahidi Al-Aqa, last month said that Norway's Statoil and France's Total have voiced their readiness to participate in the tender.

It was later reported that Statoil and Total have even signed an agreement with Iran not to disclose the data that are provided to them for the development of the Azadegan project.

Last week, Al-Aqa said that that the deadline for international corporations to forward their proposals over Azadegan project will expire in two weeks.

Despite the frustration of Tehran and Tokyo to push forward the Azadegan project, Iranian and Japanese officials are still unwilling to give up their talks to that effect.

Japan's Ambassador to Tehran Takekezu Kawamura said last Monday that Japan's talks with Iran over the development of Azadegan project are still continuing, adding that Iran and Japan are in discussion over the area to launch the project, the procedure involved and the related conditions.