Southeast Asian leaders on Thursday called for urgent talks with China to ensure that increasingly tense territorial disputes over the South China Sea did not escalate into violence.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) wrapped up a two-day summit in Brunei with a chairman's statement in which they emphasised the importance of "peace, stability and maritime security in the region".

Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the host of the talks, told reporters after the summit that the leaders wanted to "urgently work on a code of conduct" with China aimed at defusing tensions in the strategically vital body of water.

The other key focus at the summit was pushing forward plans to create a single market for Southeast Asia and its 600 million people -- known as the ASEAN Economic Community -- by 2015.

However the flashpoint South China Sea issue dominated the meeting, amid growing concern among some Southeast Asian countries over China's increasing aggression in laying claim to the waters.

China says it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the South China Sea, which is believed to sit atop huge deposits of oil and gas. It is also home to some of the world's busiest shipping lanes and richest fishing grounds.

ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, also claim parts of the sea.

The competing claims have for decades made the area one of Asia's potential powder kegs for military conflict. China and Vietnam fought battles in 1974 and 1988 for control of islands that left dozens of soldiers dead.

Tensions have risen again in recent years as China has used increasingly aggressive diplomatic and military tactics to assert its authority.

Among the actions that have caused alarm were China's occupation of a shoal close to the Philippines' main island last year, and the deployment last month of Chinese naval ships to within 80 kilometres (50 miles) of Malaysia's coast.

ASEAN endured unprecedented infighting last year as the Philippines and Vietnam failed to persuade the bloc to send a united message of concern to China.

Cambodia, a close China ally that held the rotating chair of ASEAN in 2012, blocked the efforts of the Philippines and Vietnam.

Southeast Asian leaders said this week's summit had successfully led to a regained sense of unity within ASEAN on the issue, with Philippine President Benigno Aquino praising his Brunei host for deft diplomacy that helped build a consensus.

"Everybody is interested in having a peaceful resolution and also in voicing... concern that there have been increasing disputes," Aquino told reporters.

Nevertheless, analysts said ASEAN's calls for China to agree on a legally binding code of conduct for the sea would likely lead nowhere.

ASEAN and China first agreed to work on a code in 2002, but the Asian superpower has since refused to discuss it further.

"China was never enthusiastic about a code of conduct, as it does not want to sign an agreement that will constrain its sovereignty-building activities," Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, told AFP.

However Aquino said he was happy that ASEAN leaders had at least united in trying to ensure the disputes over the South China Sea did not "become bloody".

"So there is unity of purpose and one can always be hopeful that that will lead to something more concrete," he said.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said ASEAN foreign ministers would hold talks with China on the issue during a scheduled event in Beijing later in the year.

But officials gave no indication of whether there could be any meetings before then.

Bolkiah and other Southeast Asian leaders said progress had been made this week on the ASEAN Economic Community, and more than three-quarters of its framework had been agreed upon.

But they also cautioned the hardest phases of the negotiations had just begun.

Indian foreign minister to visit China amid border spat
New Delhi (AFP) April 25, 2013 - India's foreign minister announced plans Thursday to visit China amid a border dispute, saying both countries had a mutual interest in not allowing it to "destroy" long-term progress in ties.

Amid growing calls in some quarters for a tougher line over the alleged incursion of Chinese troops in a remote Himalayan region, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said he would head to the capital Beijing on May 9.

"I believe we have a mutual interest and we should not destroy years of contribution we have put together," Khurshid told reporters on the sidelines of a business event in New Delhi.

"I think it is a good thing that we are having a dialogue."

While not directly linking his visit to the border dispute, Khurshid will be the most senior Indian official to visit Beijing since its new leadership took over at the turn of the year.

A senior foreign ministry official also confirmed reports that the new Chinese Premier Li Keqiang would travel to New Delhi India late next month, without giving an exact date.

Lower-level talks have so far failed to break the impasse in the dispute in the western part of the mountainous Ladakh region, which erupted last week.

According to officials in New Delhi, a platoon of Chinese troops set up a camp inside Indian territory on April 15.

India has since called on the Chinese soldiers to withdraw, but several meetings between local army commanders and diplomats from both sides have failed to resolve the stand-off.

China has denied any wrongdoing, a stance reiterated Thursday by the foreign ministry in Beijing on Thursday.

"Chinese troops have always acted in compliance with the relevant treaties and protocols between the two countries regarding the peace and security of the area around the line of actual control," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a regular briefing.

"Chinese troops have never crossed the lines," she added.

The Times of India suggested the alleged incursion could be intended to pressure Delhi into signing a new border cooperation agreement or be in retaliation for efforts to strengthen the Indian army at the frontier.

While the Indian foreign ministry has sought to downplay the incident, the army was pressing for "a show of force", the daily said on a page of reports entitled "Dragon At The Gate".

A foreign policy analyst in New Delhi said India has failed to resolve the border dispute largely because of an inherent "inferiority complex".

"India must get its act together and the leaders must learn to demonstrate firmness in their dealings with China," Sujit Dutta, a professor at the Jamia Millia Islamia University, told AFP.

Dutta, who specialises in Indo-Chinese relations, said Beijing's new leadership was making a concerted effort to challenge India's resolve.

"India will make a big mistake if this time it chooses to underplay the border dispute," said Dutta.

In his address on Thursday, Khurshid said India should not be intimidated by China.

"We should not think that we are less than China because they have more nuclear bombs," he said.

In 1962 India lost a short but bloody war with China fought in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast.

Small incursions are not uncommon across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border that runs nearly 3,000 miles across the Himalayas, but it is rare for either country to set up camps on disputed territory.

In recent years, the two countries have increased their military presence on each side of the border and hold frequent meetings to defuse tensions.