China's bank governor snubs Japan

The governor of China's central bank and the country's Finance Minister have pulled out of the International Monetary Fund's summit in Japan in an apparent snub to the hosts over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

The IMF confirmed that Zhou Xiaochuan would not be attending the meeting, where he was due to deliver a closing speech on Sunday. His deputy, Yi Gang, will represent him instead.

Relations between China and Japan have soured over their competing claims to sovereignty of the archipelago known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China.