Tokyo will withdraw its offer to help finance an $11.5bn oil pipeline from Siberia to Russia's Pacific coast if Moscow pursues a plan to build a spur to China first, Japan's trade minister said.

After years of wrangling with Japan and China, Russia announced last December that it would build a 4,100km pipeline to Perevoznaya on the Pacific coast, from where oil could be exported by ship to several countries, including Japan.