BEIJING, Aug. 25 -- Japan's coastguard says it hopes to build a lighthouse on a remote atoll in the Pacific which is the subject of a territorial dispute with China.

    The coastguard wants to set aside a special budget to construct a solar-powered lighthouse on Okinotori, two tiny uninhabited rocks 1,700 kilometres south of Tokyo.

    "While nothing has been decided, we believe the construction is necessary as part of maritime safety measures in the area," a coastguard spokesman said, denying any link between the plan and Japan's territorial claim.

    But the Sankei Shimbun newspaper said the construction will help the international community recognize Japanese sovereignty over the two islets.

    The Japanese government plans to finish building the 100-million-yen or 920,000-dollar lighthouse by the end of March 2007.

    In March, a forty-member Japanese group began reconnaissance work on the Okinotori, a move which it later claimed to be aimed at further supporting Japan's territorial claim over the rocks.

    The Japanese government has previously said the Okinotori is its southernmost "island" and its surrounding waters belong to Japan's exclusive economic zone.

    China said the Okinotori atoll are only two rocks and is not an island, so it does not meet the United Nations' preconditions for setting off exclusive economic zone.

    Also known as the Douglas Reef, the atolls have been extensively eroded and only several square meters of the tops of two rocks remain above surface at high tide.

    Article 121 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea says an island is a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide. Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)