TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese trade minister has linked the recent intrusion of a suspected Chinese nuclear submarine into Japanese waters with China's natural gas exploration near islands disputed by the two countries.
"I cannot help but think that they are related," Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Shoichi Nakagawa said in a news show on Fuji TV network.
He added that he took it "as a matter of course" that Chinese submarines had been intruding into Japanese territorial waters for some time.
The Tokyo government has said that a nuclear submarine violated its waters for two hours last Wednesday. After a two-day chase on the high seas in the East China Sea, it declared that the vessel belonged to the Chinese navy and demanded an apology from Beijing.
The Chinese government has only said it was investigating the Japanese claims.
The submarine zigzagged its way toward Chinese waters, remaining under water, after Japan gave up the chase with destroyers and a patrol plane. It passed by the disputed Senkaku islands, known as Diaoyu by China.
China embarked on gas exploration earlier this year on its side of the median line between the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones of the two countries.
The two countries started talks in October to address Japan's worries that the gas project could dip into resources on the Japanese side of the boundary.
"We have been asking them (China) to supply information and consult us on the resources issue but we are reaching the limit of our patience," Nakagawa said.
The trade minister added that the submarine incident could escalate the gas project row "one stage further."
Japan declared the Senkaku islands, 500 kilometres (310 miles) from Japan's Okinawa Island and 140 kilometres from Taiwan, as part of its territory in 1895 and they were temporarily put under US control after World War II. They were returned to Japanese rule in 1972.
The simmering territorial dispute came to the fore in the early 1970s, when China and Taiwan made their claims to the islands after oil deposits were confirmed in the area by a UN agency.
11/14/2004 - 06:59 GMT - AFP