U.S. envoy tells China, Japan to lower temperature in sea row

BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Japan must ease tension in the disputed East China Sea to avoid severe "unintended consequences", U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke said on Thursday, days before he steps down as Washington's first Chinese-American envoy in Beijing.

Asia's two largest economies have been locked in a war of words after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on December 26, which China sees as a symbol of militarism because it honours wartime leaders along with millions of war dead.