Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed on Friday that he would not "tolerate" any challenge to Japanese control over the contested Diaoyutai Islands, which are called the Senkakus in Japan and are also claimed by Taiwan, after China's growing incursions into the area.

"We simply cannot tolerate any challenge now and in the future. No nation should make any miscalculation or underestimate the firmness of our resolve," Abe said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"No one should ever doubt the robustness of the Japan-US alliance," he added.

Speaking after talks at the White House with US President Barack Obama, Abe added that "I have absolutely no intention to climb up the escalation ladder."

He called for the two nations to work on common interests and called Japan's relations with China "among the most important" with any country.

"The doors are always open on my side for the Chinese leaders," Abe said.

The Japanese leader insisted that history and international law proved that the islands "are Japan's sovereign territory."

Abe said that no one contested Japan's sovereignty between 1895, when Tokyo annexed the islands, and 1971, the year before the US returned the islands along with Okinawa to Japan after seizing them in World War II.