Taiwanese boats enter waters near disputed islands

Dozens of fishing boats and 12 coast guard ships from Taiwan briefly entered waters close to a disputed island chain in the East China Sea, Japan's Coast Guard said on Tuesday.The Coast Guard said the vessels had left Japanese territorial waters by noon local time after it issued a warning and fired water cannons at the ships. It said the Taiwan coast guard vessels fired water from high-pressure hoses in return.

It added that 10 Chinese surveillance ships were in the area but none had strayed into waters regarded by Japan as its territory.The long-running dispute over the islands has flared up in recent months, High Temperature hoses suppliers,triggering anti-Japanese protests in China.Taiwan, China and Japan all claim ownership of the islands.It said the fishing boats came as close as three nautical miles to the islands before turning away.

Wang Jinn-wang, head of Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration, was quoted as saying the flotilla was "the biggest ever action" to support Taiwan's sovereignty over the islands.Low Temperature Hose was the island chain lies 100 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan.Earlier this month, the Japanese government bought the disputed islands -- known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China and Taiwan -- from the Japanese family that owned them for 2.05 billion yen (US$26.2 million).