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Kuala Lumpur: China has objected to bitterly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea being discussed at high-level Asian security talks.
The United States and other several other nations have signalled they want China's expansion of islands in disputed area to dominate annual talks of the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations and its key trading partners.
As the talks began in the Malaysian capital on Tuesday, evidence emerged that China is building a second 3000-metre airstrip that could be used for combat operations on one of its artificial islands.
But China's Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liu Zhenmin said the dispute should not be discussed in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing would object if it was raised by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
"This is not the right forum. This is a forum for promoting co-operation," Mr Liu told Reuters.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said tensions in the South China Sea would be discussed as part of regional concerns.
China's aggressive stance towards its claim to almost all of the South China Sea has contributed to a massive increase in defence spending across what security experts describe as an increasingly volatile region.
Earlier, China appeared to agree to the setting up of a diplomatic hot line with ASEAN nations to use in any emergency that might arise in the flashpoint waters.
But the proposal is not expected to get final approval at the region's most important security talks held in the region each year, officials said.
US military chiefs have accused China of building "forward operating" military posts on the tiny South China Sea islands, stepping up regional military drills with its regional allies, such as the Philippines.
Mr Liu reiterated China's concerns with US activity in the South China Sea.
"Outside countries, they are trying to militarise the region," he said.
ASEAN nations have pushed for a binding resolution-solving agreement with China for a decade, as Beijing has insisted it would only negotiate territorial disputes bilaterally with other claimants Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
However, China has long worked to frustrate any agreement, while aggressively expanding its presence in the oil and gas-rich region.
"China's leaders will not sign, or if they sign, they will not abide by an enforceable code of conduct whose implementation would seriously constrain their freedom to do as they please," Donald Emmerson, a south-east Asian expert at Stanford University wrote recently.
Malaysia's Foreign Minister, Anifah Aman, cautioned that "recent developments have raised tensions and eroded trust and confidence among the parties".
The South China Sea dispute has contributed to a potentially destabilising arms race across Asia, security experts say.
Singapore-based maritime security analyst Benjamin Ho estimates defence spending among ASEAN nations increased 147 per cent to US$35.5 billion ($46.8 billion) between 2004 and 2013.
China's defence spending (US$162 billion in 2013) dwarfs the other claimant nations and accounts for 51 per cent of defence spending in north-east Asia, according to a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
But the report says Vietnam is responding to China's aggressive stance in the South China Sea by investing in its air and maritime capabilities.
The report says Singapore is modernising its force in a hedging with the US and its allies, while Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand are moving to modernise their air and maritime capabilities, despite having "haphazard" processes that do not take into account long-term maintenance requirements.
China has said it is expanding islands in the disputed region for sea search and rescues, disaster prevention and meteorological observation.
But the US military says the outposts will be equipped with radars and intelligence equipment and runways, and hangars under construction will be able to facilitate every aircraft in China's inventory.
Washington think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies said the second airstrip on a reef called Fiery Cross, 1000 kilometres from China's island province of Hainan, was in advanced stages of construction.
Almost 60 per cent of Australia's sea cargo and US$5 trillion of ship-borne trade passes through the disputed waters every year.
- with Reuters, agencies
