Japan Hasn't Complained To Mongolia On Tavan Tolgoi Exclusion -Official

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday that Japan hasn't filed any complaint with Mongolia over the alleged exclusion of Japanese companies from developing a Tavan Tolgoi coal mine deposit.

The clarification comes after Reuters reported Friday, citing unnamed government officials, that Japan had filed a complaint with Mongolia over the bidding process for the massive Tavan Tolgoi contract.

"We have not confirmed if Japanese companies are indeed excluded in the first place," a ministry official said. "We are still trying to find out."

Mongolia's government announced in a statement earlier this month that it had reached a deal with China's Shenhua International Ltd. (SHU.AU) , Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) of the U.S. and a Russian Railway-Mongolian consortium to develop a deposit at the mine.

On July 5, South Korea's government complained that the bidding process for the contract had been unfair.

"Negotiations are still going on. The Japanese and the Koreans are unhappy and are working on to get themselves in," a senior Mongolian government official said Wednesday.

Japanese and Korean firms weren't mentioned in the announcement, though some are taking part in the consortiums that include Russian Railway and Shenhua.

-By Mari Iwata, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6269-2798; [e-mail]

-- Venkat Ramakrishnan in Singapore contributed to this article.