BEIJING, Sept. 6(AP) -- A Chinese state-owned oil company denied a news report Tuesday that it is negotiating to sell part of a major oil producer in neighboring Kazakhstan to a Kazak state-owned company less than a month after agreeing to buy the firm.

China National Petroleum Corp. agreed last month to pay US$4.2 billion (€3.4 billion) for Canada-based PetroKazakstan Inc. The Asian Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified sources, said CNPC was negotiating to sell up to 50 percent of the company to state-owned KazMunaiGaz.

"Right now, we don't have any such plan," said a CNPC spokesman, who would give only his surname, Liu.

The Journal quoted the vice president of PetroKazakhstan as saying he hadn't heard about talks between CNPC and the Kazak oil company.

The bid for PetroKazakhstan came amid a massive effort by Beijing to secure foreign energy supplies for its booming economy, whose dependence on imported fuel is soaring.

The Journal said the possible price of CNPC's deal with the Kazak company wasn't clear.

The report described the possible deal as part of a trend toward governments of oil-producing nations exerting more control over their energy resources at a time of high oil prices.

Kazakhstan, a vast, sparsely populated former Soviet republic of some 15 million people, is expected to become one of the world's largest oil exporters. The discovery of its vast Kashagan field on the Caspian Sea in 2000 prompted some in the industry to call it the "Kuwait of Central Asia."

An agreement by CNPC to sell part of PetroKazakhstan to a Kazak state company could help to smooth approval of its agreement to buy the Canadian firm.