China has said it will conduct "routine" naval exercises in the Pacific ocean, a week after US President Barack Obama went on a major diplomatic campaign to assert the United States as a Pacific power.

 

"China's People's Liberation Army navy will conduct exercises in the western Pacific ocean at the end of November," the defence ministry said in a statement late Wednesday.

 

"This is a routine drill arranged under an annual plan, does not target any particular country or target, and complies with relevant international laws and international practice."

 

Obama went on a seven-day trip around the Pacific earlier this month, announcing greater military involvement in the region with the deployment of about 2,500 US Marines to northern Australia.

 

Washington's new diplomatic campaign to assert itself as a Pacific power has alarmed China, which sees the initiatives, including stationing the Marines in Australia, as intruding into its sphere of influence.

 

China's Premier Wen Jiabao has warned against interference by "external forces" in territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a strategic and resource-rich area where several regional nations have overlapping claims.

 

China claims all of the maritime area, as does Taiwan, while four Southeast Asian countries declare ownership of parts of it, with Vietnam and the Philippines accusing Chinese forces of increasing aggression there.

 

- AFP/ck