The comments by Liang Guanglie, which come shortly after a spike in tension when Chinese vessels confronted a US naval surveillance ship, are the latest high-level confirmation that Beijing is beefing up its military.

Liang told visiting Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada on Friday of China's ambition, according to reports carried widely by the state press.

"Among the big nations, only China does not have an aircraft carrier. China cannot be without an aircraft carrier forever," the Oriental Morning Post -- citing Japanese official sources -- quoted Liang as saying.

"China's navy is currently rather weak," he added, "we need to develop an aircraft carrier."

Senior members of the People's Liberation Army have also called in recent months for China to acquire its first aircraft carrier, a sophisticated piece of military hardware that can be used to project power far beyond a nation's shores.

"Building aircraft carriers is a symbol of an important nation. It is very necessary," the China Daily paper quoted Admiral Hu Yanlin as saying earlier this month.

"China has the capability to build aircraft carriers and should do so."

The defence ministry refused to immediately comment on Liang's remarks, but in December, ministry spokesman Huang Xueping told reporters that China would "seriously" consider getting an aircraft carrier.

Liang was speaking after Chinese vessels confronted -- and nearly collided with -- a US naval surveillance ship earlier in March in what Washington says are international waters off south China.

The confrontation was described by US intelligence director Dennis Blair as the most serious military incident involving the powers since a US spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet in April 2001.

China said the US naval ship Impeccable was carrying out illegal activities in its exclusive economic zone.

According to generally accepted definitions, a nation's exclusive economic zone extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres or 230 miles) into the ocean from its coastline.

Beijing also reacted angrily to a Philippine law passed earlier this month that laid claim to parts of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea which are claimed by China and other nations in the region.

China described the law as "illegal and invalid" and dispatched a civilian patrol boat to the region.

"China needs an aircraft carrier because its global status is rising and it needs to defend its maritime territory and help maintain international peace," Jia Qingguo, an international security expert at Peking University, told AFP.

"Sooner or later China will build an aircraft carrier. When it happens will mainly depend on whether the demand for this intensifies or not."

Liu Jiangyong, an expert on international security at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that a carrier was needed to protect shipping interests in an increasingly interlinked world.

"China has the need and the capability to build an aircraft carrier," the paper quoted Liu as saying.

"Building an aircraft carrier will raise our strength in the high seas and is a necessary choice for a strong China."

In China's annual parliamentary session earlier this month, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao vowed to modernise the nation's military across the board as his government asked legislators for a 15.3 percent increase in defence spending for 2009.

The defence budget will rise to 472.9 billion yuan (69 billion dollars) in 2009, an increase of 62.7 billion yuan on last year.

The figure represents a doubling of defence spending since 2006.

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