China has cancelled an economic ministers’ meeting scheduled this week with Japan and South Korea due to a row over its restrictions on rare earth exports, a report said tuesday.

The three-way meeting was slated for Friday on the sidelines of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit and a wider 16-nation East Asia Summit (EAS) Saturday that includes China, Japan’s Kyodo News said.

China cancelled the talks due to the spat over its export restrictions of rare earth minerals, which are used in the manufacture of high-tech goods, Kyodo said citing, unnamed Japanese government sources.

China, which controls more than 95 percent of the global market for the minerals, has not officially declared an export ban. But Japanese industry sources have said China has halted shipments of rare earth minerals to Japan last month, amid a simmering diplomatic row over disputed portion in the East China Sea.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is expected to raise the issue if he meets with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Hanoi, in talks which have been mooted but are yet to be confirmed.