"China's position on the issues of the East China Sea and the Diaoyu islands is consistent and clear," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu was quoted as saying by the China News Service.

"China's Haijian ship was completely legitimate in the law enforcement activities it carried out in the above-mentioned seas."

Japan has protested the incident it said took place on Monday in the East China Sea, the scene of territorial disputes between Tokyo and Beijing that have strained ties between the two.

There are four controversial Chinese gas fields in the East China Sea that Japan says extend into its own exclusive economic zone.

The two countries are also disputing sovereignty of the Diaoyu islands, known as the Senkaku islands in Japanese, which lie between Japan and Taiwan.

The incident Monday followed China's helicopter fly-bys near Japan's Okinawa island last month when Japanese naval ships spotted and followed the largest Chinese flotilla of warships so far to sail between Japanese islands.

The Chinese ships did not pass through Japan's territorial waters but their voyage was seen as provocative by many in Japan, which has watched with unease its Asian rival's military build-up.

Jiang said China had made representations to Japan over its ship's own activities, the report said, without elaborating.

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