LEAD: Chinese fisheries patrol boat sets sail for waters near Senkakus+

BEIJING, Oct. 20 Kyodo -
(EDS: UPDATING, ADDING COMMENT FROM KAN)
A Chinese fisheries patrol boat set sail last week for waters near a chain of
Japan-administered islets to protect a fishing boat, a Chinese newspaper
reported Wednesday, raising the possibility of confrontation with Japan once
again arising.
The Beijing Youth Daily said the patrol boat, belonging to the Fishery Bureau
of the Agriculture Ministry, left Yantai in Shandong Province last Thursday,
but it is not known if it arrived in the area where a Chinese fishing boat
collided with two Japanese Coast Guard boats last month.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said that as of 3 p.m.
Wednesday Japan has not observed any patrol boat around the islands.
Sengoku, the top government spokesman, said the Japan Coast Guard will maintain
vigilance over maritime activities around the islands and the government will
''make a necessary request (to China) through diplomatic channels'' if it
confirms the existence of a Chinese vessel near a zone just outside Japanese
territorial waters.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters at his office around 7 p.m. that the
existence of a vessel near Japanese waters was still ''not confirmed.''
Japan-China relations worsened to the lowest point in years in the wake of a
dispute stemming from Japan's arrest of the Chinese fishing boat captain in
early September over the collisions near the Senkaku Islands.
Beijing claims the islets, which it calls Diaoyu, have been Chinese territory
since ancient times.
When the ship left port, a senior member of the bureau's fisheries command
center said, ''Patrolling the Diaoyu is for protecting the nation's sovereign
rights, and for protecting the legal interests of fishing people.''
From late September to early October, two Chinese fisheries patrol boats sailed
for more than a week near the Senkakus before heading back to China.
The command center said in late September it would start routine patrols in the
area, and it would strengthen its patrols to protect the safety of fishermen
and their assets.
==Kyodo