China 'will not use force' in sea disputes

China on Tuesday pledged not to resort to the use of force in the tense South China Sea, as neighbours with rival border claims stepped up their complaints over Beijing's assertive maritime posture.

Beijing called for more dialogue to resolve the long-standing territorial disputes in the area after the Philippines sought help from the United States and Vietnam staged live-fire military exercises in a show of military strength.

"We will not resort to the use of force or the threat of force," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

"We hope relevant countries will do more for peace and stability in the region."

Tensions between China and other rival claimants to the strategically vital South China Sea -- home to two potentially oil-rich archipelagos, the Paracels and Spratlys -- have escalated in recent weeks.

The Philippines and Vietnam in particular have expressed alarm at what they say are increasingly aggressive actions by China in the disputed waters, but Beijing has insisted it is committed to resolving the issue peacefully.

In Manila, Philippine President Benigno Aquino said Tuesday his country needed help from longtime ally the United States in the increasingly tense maritime dispute.

"Of course they (China) are a superpower, they have more than 10 times our population. We do not want any hostilities to break out," Aquino told reporters when asked about recent Chinese actions in the disputed waters.

"Perhaps the presence of our treaty partners, the United States of America, ensures that all of us will have freedom of navigation (and) will conform to international law."

The Philippines has accused China of undermining peace and stability in the region by sending naval vessels to intimidate Filipino fishermen and the crew of an oil exploration ship.

China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia have competing claims to the Spratlys. Beijing and Hanoi are at odds over the Paracels.

The area has commercial shipping lanes that are vital for global trade.

Hong insisted Vietnam was to blame for the recent flare-up in the spat between Beijing and Hanoi, sparked by a confrontation last month between Chinese surveillance vessels and a Vietnamese oil survey ship.

"Some country took unilateral actions to impair China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and released groundless and irresponsible remarks with the attempt to expand and complicate the issue of the South China Seas," Hong said, in a thinly veiled reference to Hanoi.

"This is where the problem lies."

He said China was willing to hold direct negotiations with the other nations making territorial claims within the framework of a code of conduct agreed to in 2002.

Hong also urged nations not directly involved in the maritime disputes to "respect" the efforts of disputing nations to peacefully resolve the issue -- perhaps a warning to Washington.

On Monday, US Senator Jim Webb urged Congress to condemn China's recent behaviour, saying that Washington has been too weak-kneed on the South China Sea issue.

Webb, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia, said he was introducing a bill that would denounce China for the use of force and urge it to seek a peaceful resolution to disputes.

The United States generally does not take positions on territorial disputes in which it is not directly involved.

A Chinese military newspaper stated Beijing's position more bluntly.

"China resolutely opposes any country unrelated to the South China Sea issue meddling in disputes, and it opposes the internationalisation of the South China Sea issue," the People's Liberation Army Daily said Tuesday in a commentary.

"This dispute must be resolved peacefully through friendly consultations between the two parties involved."

Taiwan at the weekend reiterated its claim to the Spratlys, and said missile boats and tanks could be deployed to disputed territory.

Vietnam to hold live-fire drill amid China dispute

Vietnam is set to hold live-fire naval drills on Monday in the South China Sea, as tensions with Beijing reach their highest levels in years over an escalating maritime dispute.

The neighbouring nations are at loggerheads over sovereignty of the potentially oil-rich Paracel and Spratly archipelagos and surrounding waters, where recent confrontations between their ships have sparked a war of words.

A Vietnamese naval officer told AFP that the six hours of live-fire exercises would be held around Hon Ong island, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) off Quang Nam province in central Vietnam.

The officer declined to give the reason for the night drill or say how many vessels would be involved, but foreign ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga said the exercises were part of routine annual training.

The drills will be held in the area claimed as Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, where Hanoi last month accused Chinese surveillance vessels of cutting the exploration cables of an oil survey ship, causing tensions to rise sharply.

On Thursday Vietnam alleged a similar incident in the zone, saying a Chinese fishing boat rammed the cables of another oil survey ship in its waters, describing it as a "premeditated" attack.

Beijing countered by warning Vietnam to halt all activities that it says violate China's sovereignty in the disputed area.

The United States said it was "troubled" by tensions triggered by the maritime border dispute, calling for a "peaceful resolution".

The area where the live-fire exercise is planned is about 250 kilometres from the Paracels and almost 1,000 kms from the Spratlys.

Carl Thayer, a veteran analyst of Vietnam and the South China Sea, said that the drill would be a way for Vietnam to send a message, after China a day earlier also said it would conduct naval exercises.

Thayer said Vietnam was firing "a soft warning shot across the bow, rather than a real one."

But he added such drills were not unprecedented because Vietnam held an air-defence drill on land about two months ago.

Beijing says it is committed to peace in the South China Sea, but its more assertive maritime posture has caused concern among regional nations and beyond.

Tensions have also risen this year between China and the Philippines, another claimant to the Spratlys, where Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also say they have a stake.

In Vietnam, where protests are rarely held, hundreds of citizens in southern Ho Chi Minh City and in Hanoi held anti-China rallies on Sunday, bearing signs proclaiming Vietnamese sovereignty over the disputed archipelagos.

Vietnamese bitterly recall 1,000 years of Chinese occupation and, more recently, a 1979 border war. More than 70 Vietnamese sailors were killed in 1988 when the two sides had a battle off the Spratlys.

Vietnam to hold live-fire drill as China rift grows

Vietnam announced Friday that it would hold a live-fire naval drill next week in the South China Sea as an escalating maritime dispute fuels tensions with Beijing.

Relations between China and Vietnam are at their worst in years as the two countries trade accusations over recent confrontations between their ships in potentially energy-rich contested waters.

The United States said it was "troubled" by tensions triggered by the maritime border dispute, calling for a "peaceful resolution".

A Vietnamese naval officer told AFP that the six hours of live-fire exercises would be held on Monday around Hon Ong island, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) off Quang Nam province in central Vietnam.

The officer declined to give the reason for the night drill or say how many vessels would be involved.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga said the exercises were part of routine annual training.

Tensions between the communist neighbours have risen sharply after Hanoi accused Chinese marine surveillance vessels of cutting the exploration cables of an oil survey ship in May inside its exclusive economic zone, where the drill will be.

On Thursday Vietnam alleged a similar incident in the zone, saying a Chinese fishing boat rammed the cables of another oil survey ship in its waters, describing it as a "premeditated" attack.

Beijing countered by warning Vietnam to halt all activities that it says violate its sovereignty in disputed South China Sea waters.

The two countries have long-standing disputes over the potentially oil-rich Paracel and Spratly archipelagos and surrounding sea.

The area where the live-fire exercise is planned is about 250 kilometres from the Paracels and almost 1,000 kms from the Spratlys.

Carl Thayer, a veteran analyst of Vietnam and the South China Sea, said the drill would be a way for Vietnam to send a message, after China on Thursday also said it would conduct naval exercises.

Thayer said Vietnam was firing "a soft warning shot across the bow, rather than a real one."

But he added such drills were not unprecedented as Vietnam held an air-defence drill on land about two months ago.

In a sign of how seriously Hanoi views the situation, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung this week vowed to protect Vietnam's "incontestable" sovereignty of the Paracels and Spratlys.

Vietnam said it has since deployed eight boats to "escort" the ship involved in the May incident, without saying what kind of vessels. Analysts say the move raises the stakes in the dispute.

Beijing says it is committed to peace in the South China Sea, but its more assertive maritime posture has caused concern among regional nations.

Tensions have also risen this year between China and the Philippines, another claimant to the Spratlys, where Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also say they have a stake.

"Nobody wants war but when there is an escalation we will act," vice defence minister Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh told local media earlier this week.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Friday said: "We've been troubled by some of these reports about the South China Sea and believe they only serve to raise tensions and don't help peace and security in the region," "We support a collaborative diplomatic process... and call on all claimants to conform all the claims, both land and maritime, to international law."

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned last weekend that clashes may erupt in the South China Sea unless nations with conflicting territorial claims adopt a mechanism to settle disputes peacefully.

Hundreds of people held a peaceful anti-China protest outside Beijing's embassy in Hanoi on Sunday, the largest action of its kind since 2007. Protests are rare in authoritarian Vietnam.

Tensions have also spread to the Internet.

More than 200 Vietnamese websites have been attacked and some defaced with Chinese flags, an Internet security firm said Friday.

The ministries of agriculture and foreign affairs are among those targeted since the beginning of June, said Nguyen Minh Duc, director of the state-linked Bach Khoa Internetwork Security Centre.

"We don't yet know if it concerns Chinese hackers," Duc said.

Mexico trove of 1,200 Kahlo works all frauds: experts

Experts said Thursday that a trove of 1,200 art works displayed at prominent Mexican gallery as the work of famed artist Frida Kahlo are forgeries.

The works, owned by the art dealer Carlos Noyola and his wife, had been on exhibit at a gallery in San Miguel Allende in central Mexico.

But experts said there was no chance that the works could be genuine.

"The works in question are not authentic," Hilda Trujillo, director of the Frida Kahlo museum, told AFP.

"All of the pieces are signed exactly the same way, while Frida used different signatures," she said.

"Nowhere is this trove of works documented -- much less a reserve of this size," said Carlos Phillips Olmedo, another expert affiliated with the Kahlo Museum.

The couple who owns the pieces, which include oil paintings, sketches, letters and other documents, claim to have purchased them in 2005.

Law enforcement officials said no criminal charges had been filed against the couple, because they are alleged simply to have claimed that the works were by Kahlo, and not to have actually created the forgeries.

Frida Kahlo, who lived from 1907 to 1954, is best known for her haunting self portraits, but she also celebrated women and indigenous traditions in her surrealistic paintings.

Powers plot 'post-Kadhafi' future as rebels eye cash

Major powers met on Thursday to map out what the United States calls an inevitable "post-Kadhafi Libya" as Italy promised hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) in aid to answer rebel pleas for funds.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and counterparts from NATO and other countries participating in air strikes against Moamer Kadhafi's administration held their third round of Libya talks in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.

"Kadhafi's days are numbered. We are working with our international partners through the UN to plan for the inevitable: a post-Kadhafi Libya," Clinton told participants, according to her prepared remarks distributed by aides.

"Time is on our side," the chief US diplomat said, adding the international military, economic and political pressure was mounting on the Libyan colonel who has been in power for four decades.

"In the days ahead," she said, "we have to coordinate the many plans taking shape and work closely" with the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) and the Libyan people.

"Each of these efforts helps us to protect the Libyan people and lay the groundwork for a unified, democratic, and peaceful future," she said.

But Clinton offered no direct US financial contribution to the rebels, pledging instead another "$26.5 million to help all the victims of this conflict, including Libyan refugees."

Such money will likely be distributed through relief agencies.

US officials said the United States would urge Arab countries to offer more funds to the rebel administration based in Libya's second city of Benghazi.

Italy meanwhile will provide Libya's rebel council with loans and fuel products worth 300 to 400 million euros ($438 million to $584 million), an Italian foreign ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari said.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of Italy, the former colonial power in Libya, is co-chairing the meeting which is aimed to establish a financial mechanism to help the rebels' NTC.

The minister of oil and finance in the Libyan rebel council, Ali Tarhoni, warned that "if no financial concrete support comes out of this conference, we will consider that a total failure."

He said he hoped that at the very least Western governments would extend loans to the opposition secured on the billions of dollars of assets of the Kadhafi government frozen abroad.

The opposition has complained that it has seen nothing concrete since the contact group last met on May 5 in Rome when the powers agreed to set up a fund to aid the rebels and promised to tap frozen Kadhfi assets.

Two dozen countries, including key NATO allies Britain, France and Italy, as well as delegates from the United Nations, the Arab League, the African Union and the Organisation of Islamic Conference are attending the talks.

A US official told reporters on condition of anonymity on Wednesday that Washington cannot say whether the NTC "is ready to assume complete control" even if Kadhafi's fall is only a matter of time.

He also cautioned that there was no international consensus over when Kadhafi should leave power, where he should go, or even whether he should leave Libya.

The talks among the powers came amid continuing explosions in the Libyan capital. Four blasts shook Tripoli on Thursday afternoon, an AFP journalist said, although unable to pinpoint their location. During Wednesday night into Thursday other explosions echoed through the city from near Kadhafi's compound, an AFP correspondent reported.

The Western alliance said it carried out 47 strike sorties on Wednesday, hitting a vehicle storage facility in Tripoli and a missile storage facility, a missile site, a command and control facility, a tank, and four armoured fighting vehicles just outside.

NATO said it also hit an electronic warfare vehicle and a military training camp near Libya's third-largest city Misrata.

The Mediterranean coastal city is the most significant rebel-held enclave in western Libya and a rebel spokesman said up to 3,000 Kadhafi troops attacked it in a three-pronged movement from the south, west and east on Wednesday.

Twelve people were killed and 33 wounded in the fighting in which Kadhafi's forces deployed gunships, tanks and Grad rocket launchers as well as mortars, the spokesman, Hassan al-Galai, told AFP by telephone from the city.

Vietnam PM says sea sovereignty 'incontestable'

Vietnam is determined to protect the "incontestable" sovereignty of two South China Sea archipelagos, the prime minister said in a report Thursday, intensifying a war of words with China.

Tensions between Beijing and Hanoi are at their highest in years owing to long-standing territorial disputes over the potentially oil-rich Paracel and Spratly archipelagos.

The situation escalated in late May after Vietnam accused China of violating its exclusive economic zone stretching to 200 nautical miles.

Hanoi said three Chinese marine surveillance vessels severed the exploration cables of a Vietnamese oil survey ship, violating the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The public comments by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, communist Vietnam's most powerful figure, are his first on the incident and indicate the seriousness with which the government views it.

"We continue to affirm strongly and to manifest the strongest determination of all the Party, of all the people and of all the army in protecting Vietnamese sovereignty in maritime zones and islands of the country," Dung said, in comments reported by the Thanh Nien daily.

He also reaffirmed "the incontestable maritime sovereignty of Vietnam towards the two archipelagos, the Paracels and Spratlys".

After the late May incident China said Vietnamese vessels were operating "illegally" and urged the country to "refrain from creating trouble".

Beijing says it is committed to peace in the South China Sea, but its more assertive maritime posture has caused concern among regional nations.

Tensions have also risen this year between China and the Philippines, another claimant to the Spratlys, where Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also say they have a stake.

At a regional security summit last weekend in Singapore, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned clashes may erupt in the South China Sea unless nations with conflicting territorial claims adopt a mechanism to settle disputes peacefully.

Hundreds of people held a peaceful anti-China protest outside Beijing's embassy in Hanoi on Sunday, the largest action of its kind since 2007. Protests are rare in authoritarian Vietnam.