24 January 2013 Last updated at 03:05 ET

A small boat carrying Taiwanese activists trying to reach a group of East China Sea islands at the heart of a territorial dispute has been forced back by the Japanese coastguard.

The activists were sailing towards the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan, Diaoyutai in Taiwan and Diaoyu in China, to install an idol of a goddess.

China and Taiwan both claim the island chain, which is controlled by Japan.

The island row has left ties between Tokyo and Beijing severely strained.

The fishing boat is reported to have been carrying four activists as well as the Taiwanese captain, an Indonesian employee and a news cameraman. It was being escorted by four Taiwanese coastguard vessels.

They left Taiwan in the early hours and reportedly wanted to place the statue of a Taiwanese sea goddess who is traditionally believed to protect fishermen on one of the islands in the group, which lie south of Okinawa and north of Taiwan.

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says this was seen as placing a symbolic territorial claim on the islands. Video footage of the activists before they left Taiwan showed them chanting "Japan, get out of Diaoyutai" and "Return Diaoyutai".

But as the vessel approached the islands mid-morning the Japanese coastguard issued verbal warnings for it to stop, then used water cannon to force it to turn back.

"Our patrol boat carried out restrictions on the vessel such as blocking its path and discharging water," the coastguard said in a statement.

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Taiwan activists in islands bid