A coastguard spokeswoman said it had monitored the vessels with radar and that the boats left the area around dawn on Wednesday morning.

Beijing had sent the boats on September 23 to protect Chinese fishing vessels operating near the disputed islands in the East China Sea, which are known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

The move followed Tokyo's arrest on September 8 of a Chinese trawler captain whose ship collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near the disputed island chain, leading Beijing to cut off all high-level contacts until Monday.

Japan later released the captain, but the move did little to ease tensions and left Prime Minister Naoto Kan open to domestic attacks from political conservatives claiming he had caved in to Chinese bullying.

But a brief meeting in Brussels between Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at an Asia-Europe summit -- in which both claimed sovereignty over the islands -- nevertheless broke the ice after the almost month-long territorial row.

"During the meeting, we reconfirmed that we will promote our strategic and mutually beneficial relations," Kan told parliament Wednesday, adding that the two premiers also agreed to resume bilateral "high-level" talks.

However, officials in Tokyo took a cautious stance over the movements Wednesday of the Chinese boats and refused to be drawn on whether it was a sign of easing tensions.

"We must not prejudge the future activities of the Chinese fisheries patrol vessels," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku at a regular press conference.

"We should spend more time to look at this case, as to whether the situation has eased or become more serious or whether we can say they are related (to the Brussels summit)," he said.

"We will continue our careful surveillance and remain vigilant."

China had reacted strongly in the Senkaku dispute, freezing high-level talks and visits and taking punitive economic measures, according to industry sources, such as temporarily halting rare earth exports to Japan.

Beijing has repeatedly denied that it held up shipments in retaliation for the territorial row.

But Tokyo has said it will press China to stop holding up rare earth mineral shipments and other commodities after a government survey showed companies handling the materials reported Chinese disruption to shipments.

China last week allowed three Japanese construction workers to return home after detaining them for 11 days for filming at a restricted military site, but it retained one of their colleagues for further questioning.

Nationalist groups demonstrated in Tokyo on Saturday against what they saw as a diplomatic defeat for Japan while recent opinion polls have showed support for the prime minister has fallen among the Japanese public over the spat.

Meanwhile, Kan called for an early resumption of stalled talks with China over a disputed gas field in the East China Sea, while urging Beijing to suspend "unilateral activities" there.

"It is regrettable that (China) unilaterally postponed negotiations designed to conclude an international treaty," Kan told parliament. "Our country is working for an early resumption of negotiations."

Beijing scrapped scheduled talks over the joint exploration of the field, called Shirakaba by Japan and Chunxiao by China.

Tokyo suspects Beijing has started drilling in the field, which lies in an area where both countries' claimed exclusive economic zones overlap.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News