TOKYO: Japan on Tuesday ruled out any immediate plan to join the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), categorically denying a news report that its ambassador to China said Tokyo is likely to take part.

The Financial Times reported that Masato Kitera, Tokyo`s envoy in Beijing, said in an interview Japan is likely to join the AIIB within a few months, a move that would leave Washington as the only big holdout.

But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday the ambassador had not made any such comment and Japan`s position on the AIIB had not changed.

`I have been informed that it is not true that Ambassador Kitera made such remarl(s forecasting (Japan`s) participation,` Suga told a news conference.

The report comes just before the end-March deadline China has set for participation in the bank as a founding member.-AFP