BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The world's largest rice consumer of China is in talks with Japan and prepares to import more rice from this near neighbor, Li Changjiang, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said here Wednesday.

The delegate to the ongoing 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China said that the preparations for further imports from Japan were going on "very smoothly." But he didn't reveal the timetable and the amount.

The first batch of rice imported from Japan, approximately 24 tons, hit the shelves in the department stores of Beijing and Shanghai since July and has all been sold out, although its price was about 20 times higher than that produced in China.

The import ban on Japanese rice was imposed in 2003 after China found insects in rice imports from Japan. An agreement to lift the ban was reached between the two countries in April this year.