Gas field order 'unacceptable': China

BEIJING (Kyodo) Japan's demand that Beijing halt its gas exploration projects in the East China Sea and provide information about them is "unacceptable," a Chinese government official said Tuesday.

The requests concern issues that "completely fall under the framework of China's rights, and are unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said.

Kong added that China has consistently called for solving the issue through dialogue.

The spokesman was responding to a Japanese government survey that found that underground structures in two natural gas fields being explored by China in the East China Sea might be linked to those in Japan's exclusive economic zone, thus possibly infringing on Japan's rights to the areas' natural resources.