TOKYO, Japan?Japanese beer and soft drink giant Kirin said on Monday it had terminated months-long merger talks with its smaller rival Suntory that had aimed to create a top industry player in Asia.

"Kirin Holdings Company Limited, which has been in merger negotiations with Suntory Holdings Limited, today announced that the negotiations have been terminated," Kirin said, citing disagreement on whether to list the company.

A combined group would have been be the largest in the Japanese beer and soft drink markets with sales of more than $400 billion?ahead of Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev and Coca-Cola Co. of the United States.

The talks between Suntory and Kirin started last year as Japan's beverage companies have sought to look beyond their traditional markets in the face of lean economic times and an aging and shrinking population at home.

Kirin has aggressively sought to expand overseas, buying Australian brewer Lion Nathan and a chunk of San Miguel's brewing business in the Philippines.

Kirin said that it had been negotiating with Suntory "on the premise that the new entity would be managed as a listed company in order to ensure appropriate management independence and transparency."

However, Kirin said that Suntory held a different view, and that therefore the talks were "unlikely to result in the establishment of a company that would fulfill Kirin's aim of developing as a leading global company."

"Kirin therefore decided to terminate the negotiations," it said.