The Philippines has reiterated it wants to settle the ongoing Scarborough Shoal dispute with China through dialogue and an international tribunal.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said he hopes China will enter into "diplomatic consultations" and not a war of words over the disputed ownership and resource rights surrounding Scarborough Shoal, called Panatag Shoal in the Philippines, he told the Philippines Star newspaper.

Panatag Shoal in the South China Sea is a triangular collection of reefs covering less than 60 square miles and whose highest point is around 10 feet above sea level.

The shoal is more than 400 miles off the Chinese coast but 150 miles off the coast of Zambales, a province on the western shore of Luzon Island, the largest and most northern Philippines island.

China's claim to the islands rests on several treaty interpretations, including Paris 1898, the Treaty of Washington in 1900 and a treaty with Great Britain in 1930, which, the Chinese say, never specifically mentioned Scarborough Shoal as Philippines territory.

What makes ownership important is access to natural resources including oil and gas on the seabed and fishing rights in the area.

Del Rosario warned against statements by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying that Beijing is prepared for "any escalation" over the issue.

"If the (Chinese) vice minister's message is intended to be constructive, we are clearly looking for ways to defuse the situation, essentially through diplomatic consultations. We are endeavoring to continue these consultations," Del Rosario told The Star.

"If, however, the intention is to intimidate, then our position is it does not merit a response."

Since mid-April, relations between Beijing and Manila have been fraught because fishing and research ships of both nations operate around the shoal, usually under Philippines jurisdiction.

Del Rosario said nine Chinese and four Filipino fishing vessels were in the lagoon of the shoal.

He also appealed for international support, particularly from the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- of which the Philippines and China are members -- to bolster Manila's position.

Sen. Manny Villar Jr. called on the government to beef up the armed forces as a general response to any territorial claims, the Star report said.

"We should strengthen the armed forces not because of this issue on Panatag Shoal. ... This should not be for anything else, since it is but normal that every country should strengthen its armed forces," Villar said.

In China, most travel agencies have suspended tours to the Philippines because of fears for the safety of tourists, a report by the BBC said.

An official at one agency confirmed the suspension to the BBC, while another said clients were being warned not to travel.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila posted an advisory for its citizens to stay off the streets and avoid conflict with locals especially during street demonstrations, the BBC said.

The Scarborough Shoal dispute is one of a number of maritime territorial disputes in which China is claiming many islands, shoals and rocky outcrops in the South China Sea.

Among the disputed territories are the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands.

As well as Vietnam and China, ownership of various Spratly islands and reefs -- some only visible at low tide -- are disputed by Brunei, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines, although Brunei doesn't occupy any of the islands.

China denies war preparations for South China Sea
Beijing (AFP) May 12, 2012 - China has denied it is increasing combat readiness in response to a tense territorial row with the Philippines in the South China Sea which has dragged on for more than a month.

The stand-off erupted last month after Philippine authorities detected Chinese ships fishing near the Scarborough Shoal.

They tried to arrest the crew, but were blocked by Chinese surveillance vessels deployed to the tiny rocky outcrop in the South China Sea about 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the Philippines' main island of Luzon.

The two nations have stationed non-military vessels at the shoal since April 8 in an effort to assert their sovereignty over the area.

But China's defence ministry denied military units were getting ready for war, despite warnings in state media that China is prepared to fight to end the stand-off.

"Reports that the Guangzhou military region, the South China Sea fleet and other units have entered a state of war preparedness are untrue," the ministry said in a brief statement on its website late Friday.

The Guangzhou military region in southern China has responsibility for the area.

It gave no source for the reports, but rumours on Chinese microblogs say China has ordered some military units up to level two of its four-level scale of war preparedness, one notch from the top which indicates full readiness.

China claims virtually all of the South China Sea, which is believed to sit atop huge oil and gas reserves, as its historical territory, even waters close to the coasts of other Asian countries.

The Philippines says the shoal is part of its territory because it falls within its exclusive economic zone.

On Friday, around 300 protestors demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy in the Philippines to denounce "bullying" by Beijing.

Chinese citizens responded by holding far smaller protests outside the Philippine embassy in Beijing on Friday and Saturday, but police have not allowed sustained demonstrations.

China worries protests could spark wider social unrest.

On Saturday, police hustled away a group of five people attempting to unfurl a banner outside the embassy, who were put in a van and then driven away, an AFP photographer witnessed.

One briefly held up a sign reading: "Philippine servants, get away from Huangyan Island" using the Chinese name for the Scarborough Shoal.

A Chinese state-backed newspaper on Saturday accused the Philippines of whipping up nationalism, but it added military conflict in the South China Sea was possible.

"Nationalism seems to echo just as strongly wherever you go around the South China Sea. The Philippines is showing prominent such behaviour," the Global Times said in an editorial.

"It remains possible that military conflicts will ensue in the South China Sea, and when that happens China will certainly take firm action," it added.

Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia also claim parts of the sea. The rival claims have for decades made the waters one of Asia's potential military flashpoints.

The official Xinhua news agency late Friday urged the Philippines to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the dispute.

"The Philippine government is urged to use its vision and wisdom to handle the... dispute by peaceful diplomatic means to prevent harming bilateral relations in the long run," it said.

Chinese authorities have ordered tour operators to suspend trips to the Philippines, and a Philippine official said Saturday that Chinese customs had impounded fruit imported from the Philippines, alleging pests, amid the dispute.