NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - AOL Time Warner Inc., which has said it is looking to sell assets as a way of reducing debts, is in negotiation to buy the remaining 50 percent of cable network Comedy Central from venture partner Viacom Inc., according to a published report Tuesday.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that high-level execs at AOL Time Warner (AOL: Research, Estimates) have debated how it can get control of the channel from Viacom. Each media conglomerate owns half of the network, and the paper said neither is getting the full benefits from its partial ownership.

Viacom (VIA: Research, Estimates) Chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone has said Viacom would be interested in buying out AOL Time Warner's stake, valued at $700 million, the paper reported.

The paper said that neither AOL Time Warner nor Viacom would comment on any potential talks or any possible terms of a deal.

It's not clear how AOL would be able to buy full control of the network itself, given its need to reduce debt in the face of some increased debt obligations in the near term. Those obligations include $800 million AOL is required to pay Vivendi Universal (V: Research, Estimates) to buy the remaining stake in AOL Europe and another $800 million for construction of AOL Time Warner's new headquarters in New York.

The company ended 2002 with net debt of $25.8 billion, and it wants to reduce that to less than $20 billion by the end of 2004.

It was widely assumed that AOL Time Warner would want to sell its Comedy Central stake as part of its efforts to shed debt, along with its book publishing division, which company officials have said is on the block.

Separately, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday that former BMG Entertainment boss Strauss Zelnick has lined up financing from private equity group Texas Pacific to make a bid for the book unit, which includes Little Brown and Warner Books.

The paper also said the company has held talks with competitors HarperCollins, a unit of News Corp. (NWS: Research, Estimates) and Random House, a unit of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The News said AOL Time Warner is hoping to get $400 million from the sale of the book unit.

The company increased its stake in Comedy Central to 50 percent last year as part of an agreement with AT&T (T: Research, Estimates) and Comcast, the buyer of AT&T's cable operations, to buy out a 28 percent stake AT&T held in Time Warner Entertainment, the unit of the company that held the 50 percent stake in Comedy Central. Time Warner Entertainment also controls HBO, Warner Bros. studios, and its own cable operations.

Shares of AOL Time Warner, parent of CNN/Money, lost 28 cents to $10.36 in trading Monday, while shares of Viacom's class B shares gained 19 cents to $37.40.