Japan says it may release evidence to prove a Chinese naval frigate locked its fire-control radar onto a Japanese ship near disputed islands, BBC News reported.

Tokyo said it might release the data after Beijing rejected accusations it had targeted the destroyer last month. China insists its ship was only using ordinary surveillance radar.

The incident would be the closest the two countries have come to exchanging fire in the reignited dispute over the islands in the East China Sea.

The two nations are embroiled in a bitter territorial row over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Japan controls the islands, which are also claimed by Taiwan.

"The government is considering the extent of what can be disclosed," Kyodo news agency quoted Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera as saying.

On Friday, February 8 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on Beijing to acknowledge the 30 January incident and apologise. Earlier this week, Mr Onodera said a Japanese military helicopter was also targeted with a similar type of radar by another Chinese frigate on 19 January.

But China's Defence Ministry has denied the Japanese allegations saying they "were against the facts" and urging Japan to "stop stirring up tension in the East China Sea".

Since the row over the islands flared up again last September, Chinese vessels have been sailing in and out of what Japan says are its territorial waters around the islands, prompting warnings from Tokyo.