TOKYO -- Tokyo will this month make a final pitch for Moscow to give priority to a Pacific coast route favoring Japan for Russia's eastern Siberian crude oil pipeline, a news report said Saturday.

Japanese Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma will make the pitch in private talks with Russian Energy Minister Igor Yusufov at the International Energy Agency (IEA) ministerial-level meeting Paris on April 28-29, the *****Nihon Keizai Shimbun***** said.

Russia last month announced preliminary plans to build oil export pipelines to both Japan and China in a compromise decision aimed at easing regional Asian rivalries as well as those among top energy giants at home.

However a final decision on when and in what order the pipelines would be laid was postponed until feasibility studies were presented by May 1. Japan on Monday boosted the prospects for the pipeline to carry crude from Siberia to its oil-hungry economy via a terminal on Russia's Pacific coast with promises of funding for the 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) project. (AFP)