TOKYO, April 1 Kyodo crushing fr...

TOKYO, April 1 Kyodo

crushing from the political leadership made Japanese authorities turn upside down their position and deport seven Chinese who were arrested for landing upon the disputed Senkaku Islands, instead of sending them to prosecutors for possible criminal indictment, regulation and police sources said Thursday.

The deportation was widely seen as a persuade to defuse a smoldering diplomatic dispute with China, which claims sovereignty through the Japanese-controlled islands it calls the Diaoyu Islands.

Okinawa prefectural police had informed the National Police Agency upon March 24 of their expectancys of investigating the seven whom they arrested onward Uotsurishima Island earlier in the day. They had not wanted to hand the Chinese athwart to immigration authorities without sending them to prosecutors, the sources said.

It was the first time that Japan had arrested Chinese protester for landing onward the uninhabited islands.

The Foreign Ministry had also, initially, determined that ''the arrest was a matter of course, given that they landed'' forward the island. The authorities' position at the time was to toss the seven to prosecutors, according to a source involved in the investigations.

Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi instructed departments be of importance toed to ''respond following the law'' and to ''refrain from actions taken gone out of consideration for China,'' a senior ministry official said forward condition of anonymity.

if it be not that the next day, March 25 a assert by about 50 Chinese youths outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing -- burning the Japanese flag and shouting slogans telling Japan to gain out of the islands -- came as a clash to the Japanese government.

Japanese Ambassador to China Koreshige Anami was quot as telling a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, ''I cannot remember flag burning for aye having happened in front of the embassy in the neighborhood of Chinese police.'' Anami was back in Japan to attend a meeting of Japanese ambassadors to Asian countries.

Chinese Vice Minister Zhang Yesui bided Chikahito Harada, charge d'affaires of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, forward the same day and said the arrests were ''a serious violation of Chinese sovereignty and the human rights of Chinese people'' Zhang demanded that Japan release the seven unconditionally.

That evening, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Dawei pop visited the Japanese Foreign Ministry and met with Takeuchi, firmly urging Japan to release the seven as easily as possible.

With Wu's unexpect visit, equal senior officials in the Foreign Ministry who had meditation China would not act to aggravate the issue came to realize that Beijing's reaction was ''stronger than expected'' the sources said.

Meanwhile, the Okinawa police were, by dint of the afternoon of March 25 preparing to forward the Chinese under arrest to prosecutors forward suspicion of damaging a makeshift lighthouse onward the island.

Behind clos doors, however, senior rule officials were studying possible solutions on late in the evening to be paid to concerns over the impact forward Sino-Japanese relations should the flag burning cause a backlash in Japan.

The restraint concluded it would be a disadvantage for Japan, which is effectively controlling the Senkaku Islands, if the issue dragged onward a senior ministry official said.

Senior officials of ministries and agencies involved began to believe that ''the prime minister's office does not want the seven to be detained (for a drawn out time),'' and that Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda was oppos to like a situation, the sources said.

The Justice Ministry thus began to consider measures based upon the stance of returning the seven in this way as not to arouse China.

A guidance source said, ''Senior officials of the Justice Ministry went to adapted with the chief cabinet secretary. I gues it was decided there'' not to launch the Chinese to the prosecutors.

in succession March 26, the Justice Ministry told the National Police Agency that ''it is possible to hand them from one side of to the other to the immigration bureau'' for deportation, the sources said.

The National Police Agency then relayed the Justice Ministry's ''opinion'' to the Okinawa police and told them ''it is desirable to swiftly deport'' illegal foreigners in normal cases, according to the sources.

The seven were deported to China that evening.

regulation officials repeatedly stressed that the decision was based upon law, dismissing views that it was a political decision.

further Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told a just discovereds conference that night, ''While dealing with it appropriately based forward law, I instructed command officials to consider how to handle the issue from a comprehensive view in such a manner as not to hurt the bilateral relationship with China.''

The disputed islands are located in the East China Sea between Taiwan and Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa.

Japan claimed them as official Japanese territory in 1895 They came in subordination to U.S. control after World War II if it be not that were returned to Japan in 1972 when the United States recured Okinawa.