The comments from Major General Qian Lihua, director of the ministry's Foreign Affairs Office, come amid speculation within China and abroad that the increasingly potent naval arm of the People's Liberation Army has decided to develop and deploy its first aircraft carrier. Traditionally a carrier would operate within a battle group of smaller ships to protect it.

The Pentagon said earlier this year that China was actively engaged in aircraft carrier research and would be able to start building one by the end of this decade, while Jane's Defence Weekly reported last month that the PLA was training 50 students to become naval pilots.

Maj Gen Qian declined to comment directly on whether China had decided to build a carrier, but he made clear that China had every right to do so.