Tokyo said it had complained to China after Beijing called off planned negotiations over oil and gas fields in the contested area of the East China Sea in protest at Japan's seizure of the Chinese fishing boat.

The Chinese foreign ministry said any evidence collected by Japan on the collision -- which took place on Tuesday between a Chinese trawler and two Japanese coast guard ships near islands claimed by both sides -- would be "illegal, invalid and in vain".

The statement came after China's official Xinhua news agency said Japanese authorities towed the Chinese boat, with its 14 fishermen aboard, to sea on Sunday to try to reconstruct how the collision occurred.

"China urges Japan to cease actions that escalate the situation and immediately and unconditionally release the crew and ship. This is the only way to solve this problem," a statement by the foreign ministry said.

Officials from the Chinese embassy have visited the fishing vessel's captain and crew, who are being held by the Japanese authorities, China's state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The row has cast a cloud over what had been a steady improvement in relations between the traditional East Asian rivals in recent years, as their economic relationship has deepened.

Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo summoned Ambassador Uichiro Niwa in the early hours of Sunday to warn that Japan must make a "wise political decision" and free the trawler and crew, China's foreign ministry said.

It was the fourth time he had been called in.

Dai, the government's senior foreign policy official, is the highest-ranking Chinese official to weigh in on the affair.

The row escalated on Saturday when a Chinese vessel confronted two Japanese survey ships at sea, and Beijing called off talks with Tokyo set for later this month over their competing maritime claims in the area.

"The Japanese government regrets that China unilaterally announced it would postpone the talks," an official at the Japanese foreign ministry said Sunday, adding that Japan conveyed the message to Beijing through diplomatic channels.

Beijing has warned Tokyo of a "serious impact" on ties if the trawler and its crew are not released.

Tokyo suspects the trawler captain deliberately rammed the two Japanese vessels near the disputed island chain. Four Japanese patrol boats later pursued and seized the Chinese trawler.

The uninhabited islands -- known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China -- lie between Japan's Okinawa island and Taiwan. They are claimed by Tokyo, Beijing and Taipei and are a frequent focus of regional tensions.

There are four controversial Chinese gas fields in the sea that Japan says extend into its own exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

China said Thursday that a Chinese "law enforcement" ship had been sent to the area to "protect" its fishermen there.

On Saturday, the Japanese coast guard said the ship approached two of its survey vessels and ordered them to cease operations. It said Japan lodged a diplomatic complaint over the incident.

The fishing boat's captain, 41-year-old Zhan Qixiong, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of obstructing officers on duty -- a charge that carries a maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment.

earlier related report
China warns Japan over boat seizure
Beijing (UPI) Sep 10, 2010 - China is demanding the unconditional release of the captain and crew of a Chinese fishing boat seized by Japan after a collision with Japanese ships.

China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi summoned the Japanese ambassador in Beijing, Uichiro Niwa, and lodged a formal protest over the incident that happened in waters off the disputed Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea earlier this week.

Minor damages to the ships, but no injuries, were reported after the two Japanese patrol boats collided with the Chinese trawler.

But the incident sparked off a flurry of diplomatic activity and raised tensions between the two countries, both of which claim the 2.7 square miles of uninhabited islands.

Soon after this week's Chinese boat incident, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Song Tao summoned Niwa and urged Japan to stop what they said was the illegal interception of Chinese fishing boats. The venture was described as "absurd, illegal and invalid."

The Chinese government said in a written statement it remains determined "to safeguard the sovereignty of the Diaoyu islands."

Yang told Niwa Japan must "immediately and unconditionally" release the boat and crew.

The Japanese reportedly are deciding whether to charge the captain, held at a police station on the nearby Japanese island of Okinawa, with deliberately ramming their patrol vessels.

The non-volcanic Diaoyu Islands -- known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan -- are claimed by both China and Japan, but are controlled by Japan.

Disputes over who owns the five islands and three rocky outcrops predate the second world war. At the end of the war in 1945 they were under U.S. jurisdiction as part of the captured island of Okinawa. But they have been under Japanese jurisdiction since 1972 when Okinawa was returned to Japan.

The islands are 106 miles north of Japan's Ishigaki Island and 116 miles northeast of Keelung city on northern Taiwan. They lie 255 miles west of Okinawa Island, but Japan argues they are part of the Japanese Ryukyu Islands group.

Fishing boats from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan from time to time enter what Japan considers its territorial waters around the islands.

Most often the boats leave when approached by Japanese patrol boats, but in the current case it appears the ships suffered a minor accident.

Taiwan also claims sovereignty over the islands, previously called the Pinnacle Group in English. A similar diplomatic storm blew up between Taiwan and Japan in 2008 when a Taiwanese trawler sank near the islands after colliding with a Japanese patrol ship.

In late August Taiwan reiterated its claim to the islands. "The Diaoyu islands are our territory and we reiterate our sovereignty claim to the islets," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Diplomatic rows over the islands can be a sensitive issue for the United States because it supports both Taiwan and Japan.

Last month the Japanese Foreign Ministry stressed that the islands are subject to the Japan-U.S. security treaty, and the government was unaware of any shift by the U.S. administration policy.

"We have not been notified by the United States that it has changed its stance," Japan's foreign press secretary Kazuo Kodama said at a news conference.

"There is no change in the position even after the administration of President Obama took over." If the islands come under attack by other countries, "it is natural that Japan and the United States respond together," Kodama said.

Tokyo and Washington are planning a joint military exercise in the area in December.

Japan will "recapture" an unnamed remote southwestern island from an enemy, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported, although no sources for the report were given.

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