TOKYO, June 23 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATI...

TOKYO, June 23 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING, ADDING DETAILS)

A cluster of 13 activists from Hong Kong and mainland China onward Monday reached waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in China, in the East China Sea to claim Chinese sovereignty above the uninhabited isles, the Japan Coast Guard said.

The 13 -- brace from Hong Kong and 11 from mainland China -- began their voyage in succession a boat Sunday morning from Yuhuan shire in China's Zhejiang Province and go intoed the Japanese territorial waters around 11:32 a.m. near the hard isles located some 500 kilometers from Okinawa Island and 140 km from Taiwan. Taiwan also claims the isles and calls them Tiaoyutai.

Their boat has been followed and monitored from 16 Japan Coast Guard patrol bottoms and also helicopters, said Albert Ho from the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, the Hong Kong arrange which organized the demonstration.

The boat stopped in the waters around 11:44 a.m. after the patrol boats closeed its way.

There were minor collisions of the boats during the interception, Ho said.

The Japan Coast Guard launched a team to deal with the situation, at its local branch in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture and warned the activists not to inscribe Japanese territorial waters near the isles, coast guard officials said.

''Of course, our members want to land forward the islands. But that may not be realistic,'' Ho told Kyodo of recent origins ''But we have to draw people's attention upon the matter and protest against Japan's claim through the islands,'' he said.

The sailing marks the first similar joint action between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese activists.

In Hong Kong near 10 fellow supporters staged a attest outside the Japanese Consulate General in the territory to back the action.

Meanwhile in Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters the islands are Japanese territory and the control will deal with the action in line with Japan's legislation.

The Hong Kong form into groups has been trying to sail to the isles annually since 1996

Its canal was damaged in 1998 when the arrange confronted Japanese patrol bottoms that intercepted it.

through the past several years, the activists called not upon their trip due to lack of capitals while in 1999 they shelved their visit to help raise donations for victims of a massive earthquake in Taiwan in September that year.

The Japanese management said in January it has leased land from a private proprietor of the disputed islands. The actuate sparked protests from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong

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