CHINA: China has said a move by Tokyo to allow Japanese to drill for oil and gas in East China Sea waters claimed by Beijing was a "serious provocation".
"This move by Japan is a serious provocation of China's rights and international norms," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in remarks on the ministry's website.
"China has already made a protest to Japan, and reserves the right to take further reaction," Mr Qin said in remarks that were also carried by the official Xinhua news agency.
Beijing hoped to settle the dispute through negotiations, but could never accept Tokyo's demarcation line, Mr Qin said.
Japan began allocating rights for gas exploration in a disputed area of the East China Sea yesterday.
Simmering tensions between the two Asian giants over a range of topics, especially what China sees as Japan's failure to own up to wartime atrocities, erupted in China at the weekend, with thousands of people taking part in protests that turned violent.
Some concerns have risen about a backlash in Japan. Members of a right-wing group shouted slogans at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo yesterday and dragged Chinese flags behind two vans, a witness said.
Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi said Japan was not trying to be confrontational over the gas exploration issue. "The aim is to turn a sea of confrontation into a sea of co-operation," he told reporters.
China and Japan, respectively the world's second- and third-biggest oil consumers and increasingly linked by trade and investment, are at odds over China's exploration for natural gas near an area Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone.The two governments disagree on the location of the boundary between their respective zones.