Japan lodged a formal protest with Beijing after a Chinese helicopter flew as close as 230 feet at an altitude of 120 feet past a destroyer in the East China Sea. The maneuver was "extremely dangerous," Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said.

The ship, the Samidare, was patrolling near a disputed natural gas field that both countries claim.

In a separate territorial and resource-related incident, the Philippines said it wants discussions with Beijing after it lodged a formal complaint regarding threatening behavior by Chinese patrol boats toward a survey ship.

Philippines Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said seismic testing for gas by a Singapore-registered, French-owned survey ship in the South China Sea was stopped after the incident.

"They had to pack up and reconstitute everything," Almendras said. "We have to wait but we hope to resume."

The incident happened at the Reed Bank oil and gas fields off Palawan Island, Lt. Gen. Juancho Sabban, military commander for the Western Philippines, said. The air force sent two planes to investigate and the Chinese vessels left when the aircraft appeared in the area.

Vietnam also is concerned about growing Chinese military presence around hundreds of islands and islets in the China Sea whose ownership Beijing disputes.

In 1974, China occupied the Paracel Islands, seizing them from Vietnam. China calls the Paracel Islands the Xisha Islands and they are governed as part of China's nearby Hainan Island province.

Apart from China, the Spratly Islands, or some of them, are claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

At stake isn't so much the tiny islands themselves, a collection of more than 700 reefs, atolls and cays whose total land mass is measured in several square miles, depending on tides.

Of greater importance is that ownership allows control of the surrounding militarily strategic shipping lanes and economically important fishing grounds as well as oil and natural gas reserves.

In August, the guided missile carrier USS McCain and the aircraft carrier USS George Washington took part in the non-combat training exercises with Vietnam in the South China Sea.

The exercises celebrated 15 years of diplomatic ties between the former enemies after aggressions ended in 1975 when the communists over ran the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City.

"The strategic implications and importance of the waters of the South China Sea and the freedom of navigation is vital to both Vietnam and the United States," Capt. Ross Myers, commander of the George Washington's air wing, said during the ship's visit to Vietnam in August.

"I'm certain that the Chinese government and the Chinese people are trying to protect their interests. It is more important for Vietnam (and) its partners to establish that they have an equal right to economic prosperity and peace within the region as well."

But protests by China's neighbors usually are met with Beijing reiterating its claim to much of the Nansha Islands, as the Spratly Islands are known in China.

"China holds indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said after Japanese and Filipino protests.

"We have been committed to dialogue and consultation to properly solve the South China Sea dispute and work with relevant countries to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.

"We hope that other countries can respect and support efforts to peacefully resolve the disputes, to promote good neighborly friendship and peace and stability in the region," she said.

But military occupation of islands isn't the way forward, said Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president of Indonesia, the country that holds the 2011 chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Spratly Islands could become a "zone of cooperation" and not conflict among the claimant-nations, he said.

"I'm sure it is open for opportunities for cooperation and no doubt we will hope that the South China Sea does not become a place of open conflict, but in fact, become a zone of potential economic cooperation.

"In this regard, through ASEAN, we'll continue to work together to ensure security in the supply of energy in the South China Sea," he said.

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