U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Japan and China on Thursday to quickly resolve their maritime dispute before it has a long-term impact on the region, Reuters cited a U.S. official as saying on Thursday. Japan's Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara brought up the dispute -- which has seen tensions spike over a group of uninhabited islands both sides claim -- in a meeting with Clinton during the U.N. General Assembly. "The secretary's response was just to encourage dialogue and hope that the issue can be resolved soon," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters. U.S. President Barack Obama was also meeting with China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the sidelines of the U.N. assembly on Thursday, but both Asian leaders made clear they had no plans to meet each other. Crowley said the United States saw no need to mediate as it believed the two sides were capable of solving the issue without resorting to force. "We have not been asked to play a particular role. This is an issue that two mature countries ... are fully capable of resolving and our sense is that neither side wants to see the situation escalate to the point that it has long term regional impact," he said. China and Japan have been at loggerheads since a Japanese court extended the detention of a Chinese skipper whose boat collided with two Japanese coastguard ships this month near islands in the East China Sea claimed by both sides. China has repeatedly demanded the captain's release, and has taken steps to escalate the row, which comes amid growing friction between the region's two largest economies. Crowley said the United States did not foresee any open military confrontation over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. "I don't think that we see that on the horizon and we certainly would hope that it would not rise to that level," Crowley said. Clinton and Maehara also talked briefly about the U.S. Marines Futenma base in Okinawa, which is due to be moved to a quieter part of that island as part of a broader reorganization of U.S. forces in Japan, Crowley said. The base has long been a source of tension for residents and led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatayama earlier this year. Hatayama's successor, Kan, has pledged to work to lessen the burden on the people of Okinawa while respecting the agreement with the United States, a view he reaffirmed in his meeting with Clinton, Crowley said. "I don't know that we see any particular obstacles at this point," Crowley said.
