Japan's unilateral actions on the Diaoyu Islands are "illegal and invalid," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said on Wednesday.

The Japanese government has reportedly taken over a lighthouse built by a Japanese right-wing group on the islands, claiming that the lighthouse would be protected as Japan's state property.

The 5.6-meter (18-foot) lighthouse was erected in 1988 by Japanese right-wing activists to mark a claim on Uotsuri-jima, the largest of the Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China, which lie between China's Taiwan Island and Japan.

"Those who built the lighthouse said they no longer can run it," Vice Foreign Minister Shuzen Tanigawa said.

"Since they have abandoned the right of possession, it has been transferred" to the state, Tanigawa said.

Kong Quan said the Diaoyu Islands and neighboring islands have been China's territory since ancient times, and any unilateral actions taken by Japan are illegal and invalid.

Earlier, Kong said China has always maintained that the dispute should be addressed by negotiation and consultation. "No unilateral action should be taken," Kong said on January 18.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, February 9, 2005)