TOKYO - A ROW over pesticide-laced Chinese dumplings has moved a step closer to a settlement after China told Japan that a factory worker was probably to blame, NHK public television said on Saturday.

Ten Japanese became sick after eating pesticide-contaminated dumplings which had been imported from China, stirring intense media coverage earlier this year.

Japan and China have long been at odds over where the dumplings were contaminated, with both denying sabotage in their home countries.

Earlier this month, the Japanese government said China had told Japan in July that the Chinese-made dumplings had also caused food poisoning in China.

At the time China had asked Japanese officials to refrain from disclosing the incident as it was still under investigation.

Saturday's NHK report said that, for the first time, Chinese officials had told their Japanese counterparts that somebody at the factory in China appeared to have contaminated the dumplings involved in the Chinese poisoning case 'for personal reasons'.

It said that the development was likely to pave the way for a settlement of the incident, which has deepened public mistrust between the two countries.

The poisoning case has long been a headache for Japan's unpopular Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who came under fire for taking too long to alert the public after the first consumer fell ill in late December. -- REUTERS