China sees no basis for Japan talks as islands dispute simmers

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Tuesday brushed aside calls from Japan to hold a leaders' summit as "grandstanding", while Japan's finance minister said Tokyo should make clear it would use its navy to defend islands at the core of a dispute with Beijing.

Ties between the world's second- and third-largest economies have been strained for months because of a row over the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, as well as disputes over the countries' bitter wartime past.