Tian Jian, general manager of Yahoo (YHOO) China's search service, says that Yahoo has started consultations with the top management of the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on expanding the Chinese online search engine sector.

The two groups have reached a preliminary consensus and will soon sign a cooperation agreement on making rules and regulations for China's search industry.

According to local media reports, Tian says says Yahoo and CNNIC were often at odds in the past, but he says the two sides now want to reconcile with each other and work together to provide more options for Chinese Internet users.

Any new rules that Yahoo and CNNIC formulate will also have an impact on other search engine companies operating in China like Baidu (BIDU), MSN (MSFT) and Google (GOOG), but it is unclear now why these companies were also not invited to help form policies with CNNIC for their sector.