Tokyo (CNN) -- The Japanese government is in the final stages of negotiations to bring a hotly disputed set of small islands in the East China Sea under public ownership, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Friday, stressing his country's claims of sovereignty. The islands are at the heart of a bitter diplomatic argument between Japan and China that has resulted in occasionally violent acts of public protest. The uninhabited islands, known in Japan as Senkaku and in China as Diaoyu, are privately owned by a Japanese family. A public initiative begun in April by the outspoken governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, to raise money to acquire the islands for the city authorities has set off a new cycle of tensions between Japan and China over which country has sovereignty over them.
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NEW: Noda says recent tensions with South Korea are "regrettable"
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China vowed this week to defend its "territorial integrity"
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The islands are privately owned by a Japanese family
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The Japanese premier says the government is close to a deal to buy them
"Right now, it is the ownership issue -- whether the individual owns these islands, or the @placeholder metropolitan government or the state.