TOKYO (Reuters) - Western Digital Corp's top executive is in Japan to meet government officials, aiming to resolve a dispute with Toshiba Corp over the Japanese company's planned sale of its chip business, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Toshiba and joint venture partner Western Digital are at loggerheads over the sale of the chip unit - the world's second-largest producer of NAND chips. Toshiba is counting on the sale to cover billions of dollars in cost overruns at its now bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse, while Western Digital says any deal would require its consent.

Western Digital CEO Steve Milligan is meeting with officials who were recently appointed to senior positions at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in a reshuffle, the sources said.

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Ritsuko Ando and Mark Potter)