Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in Washington that the Diaoyu Islands dispute should remain a bilateral issue between China and Japan and the US should not take sides on the issue, according to Radio Australia and the Seoul-based Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

Kissinger, who took part in the handover of Okinawa to Japan and the normalization of US-China ties, said the governments of China and Japan reached an agreement of shelving the islet dispute in 1978.

And he also said that there was "no active American involvement" in formulating a conclusion between the two countries on the Diaoyu Islands.

Kissinger urged that the US should not take a position on the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands.

A US Congressional report said Washington has never recognized Japan's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands and takes no position over the territorial row between Japan and China.

The report, published on Sept 25 by the Congressional Research Service, the public-policy research arm of the US Congress, said the US recognizes only Japan's administrative power over the Diaoyu Islands after the Okinawa Reversion Treaty was signed in 1971.

"US State Department officials asserted that reversion of administrative rights to Japan did not prejudice any claims to the islands," said the report from the Congress think tank.