DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — A top Chinese diplomat says he thinks Beijing's dispute with Japan over islands claimed by both countries can be "controlled" soon.

Ambassador Liu Zhenmin, China's envoy to the U.N. in Geneva, said Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos that his country hopes the new Japanese government will "take the right measures to overcome the difficulty in relations with China and bring relations back on track."

Tensions have soared since the Japanese government bought the uninhabited islands, known in Chinese as the Diaoyu islands and in Japanese as the Senkaku islands, from their private Japanese owners in September.

Liu also says negotiations are also under way to resolve overlapping claims in the South China Sea by six governments, including China.