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

TOKYO, June 23 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING illustrations REACTIONS)

A ship with 13 activists from Hong Kong and mainland China left Japanese territorial waters in the East China Sea upon Monday after attempting to land onward disputed isles known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan to claim Chinese sovereignty across them, the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) said.

A support assemblage in China said on its Web site the protester gave up landing in succession the uninhabited isles known as the Diaoyu Islands in China because many members were suffering from sea sickness.

The sailing craft carrying the 13 -- sum of two units from Hong Kong and 11 from mainland China -- jot downed Japanese territorial waters around 11:32 a.m. still its progress was halted by the agency of Japanese patrol ships at around 11:44 a.m. It left Japanese waters shortly after 2 pm the coast guard said.

The utensil departed after protesters burned a Japanese flag and threw white paper flowers into the sea to commemorate a Hong Kong activist who died upon a similar voyage in 1996 according to supporters in Hong Kong

The protester began their voyage Sunday morning from Yuhuan shire in China's Zhejiang Province.

Taiwan also claims the obdurate isles located some 500 kilometers from Okinawa island and 140 km from it, and calls them Tiaoyutai.

The JCG launched a team to deal with the situation from its local branch in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture and warned the activists not to come into Japanese territorial waters around the isles, JCG officials said.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters the islands are Japanese territory and the sway will deal with the action in line with Japanese law.

Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi said at a of recent origins conference that the Japanese dominion had asked the Chinese direction and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in advance to discourage the activists from carrying abroad the voyage.

''We obtained information (about the attempt) forward Sunday and Monday, and asked the Chinese rule and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to stop it,'' Takeuchi said.

He said the Chinese side answered that it was unaware of the incite and would investigate whether in the same state [i]or[/i] condition an attempt was planned.

However, the Chinese conduct backed the stance of the 13 activists.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan issued a written statement reiterating Beijing's position that ''the Diaoyu Island and its adjacent islets have been an integral part of China since ancient times.''

Tong Zeng undivided of the activists in Beijing who organized the incident said, ''This is a civilian, patriotic action. The Chinese authorities have not oppos or stopped it.''

The protesters' tube has been followed by 16 JCG patrol ships and helicopters, said Albert Ho from the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, the Hong Kong assign places to which organized the demonstration.

There were minor collisions involving the ships during the interception, Ho said.

''Of course, our members want to land forward the islands. But that may not be realistic,'' Ho told Kyodo of the present days ''But we have to draw people's attention to the matter and affirm Japan's claim over the islands,'' he said.

The asseverate voyage is the first as it was joint action between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese activists. It was originally planned for earlier in the year on the other hand postponed due to the outbreak of stiff acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but the mainland and Hong Kong according to the supporters.

In Hong Kong 10 counterpart supporters staged a protest outside the Japanese Consulate General in the territory to back the action.

In Beijing, a assign places to of activists sent a verbal expression to the Japanese Embassy blasting the Japanese government's ''barbaric actions'' and calling for JCG patrol ships to leave the area around the islands.

The verbal expression said the JCG's interception of the protesters' duct was an ''invasion of our sacred territory, a brazen challenge to China's clan and a serious infringement of international treaties.''

The action will ''seriously damage Sino-Japanese relations and inflict injury upon the feelings of Chinese people'' said the verbal expression signed by the cluster of 13 activists, including journalists and authors.

The dispose includes Zhang Xiaobao and psalm Qiang, authors of the controversial 1996 best vender ''China Can Say No,'' and Tang Fengyu a journalist who has written about Japanese wartime atrocities in China in his work ''Nanjing Massacre.''

The Hong Kong arrange has been trying to sail to the isles annually since 1996 Its tube was damaged in 1998 when the cluster confronted Japanese patrol ducts that intercepted it.

In novel years, the activists have called against the action due to lack of foundations and shelved the protest in 1999 to help raise circulating medium for victims of a massive earthquake that hit Taiwan in September that year.

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