TOKYO, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- China and Japan held their third round of high-level negotiations over maritime issue in Yokohama on Thursday and agreed to launch at an early time the bilateral contact mechanism over air and maritime issues involving their defense organs.

Yi Xianliang, vice chief of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, headed the Chinese delegation, while deputy Director-General Makita Shimokawa of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau at the Japanese Foreign Ministry represented the Japanese side and the talks also covered other government branches from both sides.

The two sides agreed to continue cooperating over cracking down maritime crimes like smuggling and to establish a dialogue channel between both sides' coast guard headquarters.

China and Japan also achieved the agreement to intensify dialogue on maritime policies and laws under the mechanism and will enhance maritime cooperation in fields such as searching and rescue, science and environment.

The two sides also agreed to hold the fourth round talks of the mechanism in China in the second half of this year.

The bilateral high-level talks over maritime issues formed in January 2012 and the first talks was held in Hangzhou in China in May 2012.