Captured Chinese sailors released

The captain of a Chinese fishing boat is still being held after being caught by Japan in disputed waters, while his crew have been freed.

The fourteen sailors, who had been kept aboard their boat in a harbour on the southern Japanese island of Ishigaki for almost a week, have been taken to a local airport and taken back home to China on a charter plane.

The fishing boat, held in Japan for search and investigation, was also released.

The captain of the Chinese boat, Zhan Qixiong, was arrested for obstructing executive officers while on board and the local prosecutors' office said Zhan was still being held after a court approved to extend his detention.

Prosecutors can hold him for a maximum of 20 days before making a decision on whether to proceed with legal action.

The row over the detained fishing boat has given an emotive focus to a long-running dispute between Beijing and Tokyo over who owns a group of small islands in the East China Sea.

The islets, called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, are thought to lie near potential oil and gas reserves, which China estimates to have up to 210 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

If this is accurate, the additional reserves in the seas would make China one of the world's top ten holders of natural gas and take it above the reserves held by top gas producer the United States, according to BP's 2010 statistical review.