Feb 6 (Reuters) - China expressed "extreme dissatisfaction" and summoned a Japanese diplomat on Tuesday over Tokyo's complaints about a Chinese research ship nearing a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Here are some key facts about the disputed islands.

LOCATION:

- Known as the Senkaku isles in Japan and the Diaoyu ("fishing platform") islands in China, the eight uninhabited islands lie in the East China Sea, west of Japan's Okinawa island, northeast of Taiwan and east of China's southeastern Fujian coast.

DISPUTE:

- Japan says the islands were unclaimed until 1885 when it surveyed them. But China says they were used by its fishermen for several centuries after they discovered them in 1403, and were administered as part of Taiwan.

- The islands came under U.S. control after World War One, and were used for occasional bombing practice before administrative rights were returned to Japan in 1972.

ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE:

- The dispute gained significance after a 1969 United Nations report said there were possibly large oil reserves in the vicinity. Since then, surveying has been a sensitive issue.

- The larger drive to secure the East China Sea's natural gas resources has seen overlapping claims from Japan and China to the sea's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Both claim 200 nautical miles of EEZ, although the East China Sea is only 360 nautical miles wide.

RECENT SPATS:

Feb 26, 1992: China's parliament passes its first law on territorial waters reiterating its claim to the islands. Japan protests.

July 17, 1996: Seven members of the Tokyo-based rightist group Nihon Seinen Sha sail to the islands and construct a five-metre-high makeshift aluminium lighthouse on one, sparking protests from China and Taiwan.

Sept 26, 1996: David Chan, a Chinese activist, becomes the dispute's first casualty, dying after jumping into rough seas from a chartered Hong Kong protest ship.

May 5, 1997: Japanese lawmaker Shingo Nishimura holds a ceremony on the islands, triggering protests from Beijing.

May 25 1997: More than 200 activists sail in a protest flotilla from Taiwan but are repulsed by Japanese patrol boats.

June 23, 2003: Japan's coast guard blocks an attempted landing on one of the islands by a group of Chinese activists.

March 24, 2004: Japanese police arrest seven Chinese activists after they land on one of the islands.

Feb 9, 2005: Japan says it is taking over the lighthouse built by right-wing activists.

Feb 6, 2007: China protests Japan's criticism of a Chinese research ship that comes 30 km (20 miles) west-northwest of Uotsuri, one of the disputed islands.

Source: Reuters, Global Security (www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/senkaku.htm)

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