BEIJING: China has accused the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, of presenting a distorted picture of its dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea.

The Foreign Ministry said Mrs Clinton ''ignores the facts and confuses right and wrong'' in a short description of the situation at a news conference in Washington on Friday.

The unusual objection, released as Mrs Clinton prepares to step down as secretary of state, appears to have been prompted by a new phrase she used in an otherwise standard reference to the worsening feud between China and Japan.

With Japan's Foreign Minister, Fumio Kishida, standing beside her, Mrs Clinton said the Obama administration opposed ''any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration'' of the islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.

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The reference to unilateral actions was interpreted in the Japanese media as meaning the US was unhappy with China's recent actions in the East China Sea.

In the past few months, both China and Japan have sent civilian vessels to the waters around the uninhabited islands.

On January 10, China ordered a surveillance aircraft to fly near the area. In response, Japan scrambled F-15 fighter jets and China dispatched J-10 fighter jets in turn.

Under a longstanding security treaty with Japan, the US is obliged to defend the country, including the uninhabited islands, a position Mrs Clinton referred to at the news conference.

She also repeated that Washington recognised that the islands were administered by Japan. China insists its claim to the islands is supported by historical documents.

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Clinton is distorting islands dispute with Japan, says bearish China