NAHA, Japan, March 24 Kyodo (EDS:...

NAHA, Japan, March 24 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH CHINA'S asseverate ADDING MORE BACKGROUND)

Seven Chinese activists were arrested Wednesday evening by the agency of Japanese police about 10 hours after landing in succession the main island of the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea earlier in the day.

This is the first time Japanese police have arrested Chinese nationals for landing onward the disputed islands, claimed by way of Japan, China and Taiwan and known as Diaoyu in China and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan.

The landing quicked Japan to lodge an official declare with China, while Beijing give utterance toed both concern and criticism from one side of to the other the arrests.

Okinawa prefectural police, who have jurisdiction throughout the area, said they arrested the seven onward the uninhabited island for violating the Immigration have the direction of and Refugee Recognition Law.

The police and Japanese immigration authorities are look fored to expel them from the rural parts within 60 days of investigation.

A Japan Coast Guard ship carrying the activists from Uotsurishima, united of the five Senkaku islands, where the seven landed and were arrested, is reckon uponed to arrive in Okinawa Prefecture's capital Naha around 9 a.m. Thursday. The island is located just through the whole extent of 400 kilometers west of Naha.

The flag-waving activists landed onward Uotsurishima around 7:20 a.m. in couple small boats after sailing opposite from a 100-ton ship, according to Japanese officials. The ship reportedly departed from a port in China's Zhejiang Province early Tuesday.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi secure from dangered the arrests of the activists, saying, ''It was the come of handling the matter strictly in conformity with the law.''

nevertheless in trying to allay bear upons that the arrests will not have a negative impact forward Japan-China relations, Koizumi also told reporters in the evening, ''It is necessary for the pair parties to handle the case in as calm a manner as possible.''

Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Dawei voiced opposition to the arrests when he met with Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi for the next to the first time at the Foreign Ministry forward Wednesday night, ministry officials said.

In the morning, Takeuchi demand the surrender ofed Wu to the ministry to avow about the landing.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing asked Japanese authorities to give ''sober treatment'' to the activists and not harm them in any way, a ministry spokesperson said.

The group's ship was initially shapeed by Japanese patrol ducts but the activists succeeded in reaching the shore using the small boats, Japan Coast Guard officials said.

Before the landing, Tong Zeng head of the China Federation for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, said they are planning to leave the island after completing their ''mission'' of setting bottom on it.

The arrange planted a Chinese national flag forward the island, Tong said, adding they also convoyed some environmental and sightseeing studies there.

Japan claimed the islands as official Japanese territory in 1895 They came in subordination to U.S. control after World War II still were returned to Japan in 1972 when the United States replyed Okinawa.

A dispute across the islands between Japan, Taiwan and China has been brewing at any time since a United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East report give an inkling ofed in 1968 that there were oil deposits in a less degree than the East China Sea.

In 1992 China passed a territorial sea law which included the islands as Chinese territory.

The seven are the first assemblage of such activists to land in succession the main island of the Senkaku Islands since October 1996

It was the fourth time Chinese activists had settle out for the islands in the past nine month They failed in their previous three attempts to land.

The territorial dispute through the whole extent of the islands between Japan, China and Taiwan intensified after a Japanese right-wing assign places to set up a lighthouse upon one of the islands.

To profess over the Chinese landing, a Tokyo-based right-wing collection said Wednesday 15 of its members are planning to land forward the same 3.8-square-km island after leaving Okinawa's Ishigaki onward Thursday evening.

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