Asia Tech Wire (Sep 2) -- China will impose tough economic countermeasures on Japan if it further restricts the sale of chip-making equipment and services to Chinese companies, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

According to the report, senior Chinese officials have articulated this position to Japan in a number of recent meetings.

Toyota Motor has privately alerted Japanese officials that China may respond to the chip controls by cutting Japan's access to key minerals used to produce cars.

The U.S. has been pressuring Japan to impose additional restrictions on the sale of advanced chip-making tools to China by companies such as Tokyo Electron Ltd.

Senior U.S. officials have been working with Japan on measures to ensure adequate supplies of key minerals, especially since China has imposed restrictions on exports of gallium, germanium and graphite since last year, the sources said.

The U.S. government is confident that it can ease Japan's concerns and can reach an agreement with Japan by the end of this year, the report said.

China's Foreign Ministry has consistently expressed its opposition to any country politicizing normal trade and luring other countries into joining the technology embargo against China.