An official from the Foreign Ministry's Department of Asian Affairs solemnly raised the issue of Diaoyu Islands on Wednesday with the Japanese side, the website of the ministry said on Friday.  

On February 9, Japan said it had placed under "state control" a lighthouse built in 1988 by its nationalists on the Diaoyu Islands.

The Japanese action is a severe violation of Chinese sovereignty and the Chinese people will never accept it, the Foreign Ministry official said, adding that any unilateral action by the Japanese side is illegal and invalid.

Diaoyu Islands have long been Chinese territory and China has undisputable sovereignty over the islands, the official said.

China has always maintained that the dispute should be addressed by negotiation and consultation. "No unilateral action should be taken," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said on January 18.

The Japanese move comes amid rising tensions between the two countries, including a dispute over a major gas field near the islands.

Japan declared the oil-rich but uninhabited islands were part of its territory in 1895, the same year it took over Taiwan.

In March, 2004 Japanese authorities arrested and deported seven Chinese activists after they went to the islands, causing a diplomatic row with Beijing.

The activists were the first people to land on the disputed islands since 1996.

Relations between China and Japan have been increasingly strained in recent months in part over disputes about the nearby gas field where Beijing began drilling in 2003 despite Tokyo's protests.

In December, Japan for the first time listed China as a potential threat in revised defense guidelines.

China, in turn, has been incensed over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated annual visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war dead including war criminals in a bitter reminder of Japan's militaristic past.

China has refused all bilateral state visits due to Koizumi's pilgrimages. The Japanese premier has defended his visits but has not gone to the shrine this year.

(China Daily February 12, 2005)