TOKYO (AFP) - Japan summoned a Chinese diplomat to protest the intrusion into its waters of a nuclear submarine, which set off a two-day chase on the high seas amid mounting tension between the Asian powers.
Japanese officials, who had initially been careful not to blame its giant neighbor for Wednesday`s two-hour territorial violation near disputed gas fields, said they determined the submarine belonged to the Chinese navy.
"We made a strong protest and demanded an apology," Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said after meeting Chinese embassy number two Cheng Yonghua, who was summoned because the ambassador was out of Tokyo.
Machimura called for an explanation and asked China to take "preventive measures" to ensure a similar incident does not re-occur.
The Chinese diplomat said he would report to Beijing but added, "`We are investigating this matter so we cannot accept a protest or make an apology,`" Machimura quoted him as saying.
Disputes have been growing between China and Japan, with a leaked report by Japanese defense planners this week charting three scenarios for a Chinese attack -- all potentially involving the southern region where in the submarine intruded.
The two countries, which both rely heavily on energy imports to feed their massive economies, held fruitless talks last month in Beijing about how to demarcate the gas fields, which a 1999 Japanese survey estimated to have 200 billion cubic meters (seven trillion cubic feet) of reserves.
Machimura said it was "very regrettable" that the submarine violated Japanese waters weeks after dialogue.
But the foreign minister added: "Overall, I do not believe Sino-Japanese relations are bad although we have some ups and downs."
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the Japanese government spokesman, said separately that Japan did not want to cause more confrontation with China.
"There is no change in our basic diplomatic policy that is based on peaceful diplomacy and friendship," Hosoda said.
"We are going to have to see their response following our protest."
A fact-finding mission from the Japanese parliament called Wednesday for a slash in development aid to China, which has so far totalled nearly 32 billion dollars, citing China`s growing economy and hostility toward Japan.
Asked whether the submarine incident would lead Japan to pull the plug on aid, Hosoda said: "It`s too early to judge that."
China feels deep resentment over Japan`s brutal occupation of the country from 1931 to 1945. The feeling has been regularly reinforced by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi`s visits to a Tokyo shrine that honors Japanese war dead including convicted war criminals.
China has yet to confirm whether President Hu Jintao will meet Koizumi when the two leaders attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile later this month.
If Hu and Koizumi do meet in Santiago, it would be "natural" that they discuss the submarine intrusion, Machimura said.
The submarine intruded about 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Okinawa, a southern island which hosts about 65 percent of the more than 40,000 US forces in Japan.
Japan sent two destroyers after the submarine along with a surveillance plane, which had been tracking the vessel by dropping wireless microphone buoys.
"As the submarine navigated north by northwest, we determined it belonged to China as the country possesses nuclear-powered submarines in the area and has thorough knowledge of geographical features of the ocean area," said Japan`s military chief, Defense Agency Director-General Yoshinori Ono.
Japan`s former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who frequently visits China, met Thursday with Chinese leaders and told them the submarine incident was "regrettable", without assigning blame.
11/12/2004 - 10:00 GMT - AFP