China is still negotiating 2009-10 iron ore contract prices with key iron ore suppliers and hasn't reached an agreement yet, Baosteel Group President Xu Lejiang said Wednesday.

"We are still talking (with the miners), under the guidance from China Iron & Steel Association," Xu said on the sideline of a business event in Shanghai.

Separately, Rio Tinto Plc (RTP) spokesman in London, Nick Cobban, also said price talks were still continuing. Cobban declined to elaborate.

The comments were made after the China Business News website reported earlier in the day that Chinese companies had finally agreed to the same 33% price cut for iron ore fines that was earlier agreed with Japanese and South Korean steel mills.

Chinese negotiators have been holding out for a deeper price cut this year.

The China Business News report, citing unnamed sources, had said the deal was struck for a six-month period from April and that talks were still on to decide prices for the second half of the contract year.

Baosteel, China's biggest steel producer by output, along with the China Iron & Steel Association, has been representing Chinese steel mills in this year's annual price negotiations with Brazilian miner Vale S.A. (VALE) and Anglo-Australian miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP).

A BHP spokeswoman, when contacted, also said price talks were still going on.

"We will make an announcement when the majority of our contracts have been settled," she said.

-Andrea Hotter in London and Li Yue in Shanghai contributed to this report; Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588 5848; Yue.li@dowjones.com