Ten Chinese fighter jets were dispatched on April 5 to warn off five US spy planes carrying out a surveillance mission off the Chinese coast, it was reported Friday.

Chinese military authorities on Thursday immediately dispatched the jets after the US planes were located in an unidentified area in coastal China, the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po said in a report.

"Under the close monitor of our aircrafts, the US spy planes were eventually scampered out of China's coastal areas," the paper cited an unidentified source in Beijing as saying.

The daily noted that it was the first such incident since a US EP-3 spy plane, carrying 24 crew members, landed at a military base on the southern island of Hainan after a collision with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet.

So far this year, some 63 US surveillance aircrafts have been detected in Chinese coastal areas, it said.

Last year, the United States sent some 950 spy planes to carry out spying mission along the Chinese coast, the daily said.

China has held the United States responsible for the accident over international waters which left a pilot of one of its F-8 fighters missing, while Washington said the fault was on the Chinese side.

Beijing has demanded that US apologize for the incident, but so far Washington has only expressed regret over the missing pilot.

(Agencies 04/06/2001)