TOKYO (AFP) - Japan has suggested setting up a military hotline with China to avoid clashes between the two countries, which are at loggerheads over a group of disputed islands, Tokyo’s defence minister said Saturday. The proposal came after Tokyo accused a Chinese frigate of locking its weapons-tracking radar on a Japanese destroyer - a claim Beijing has denied. The incident, which Japan said happened last week, marked the first time the two nations’ navies have locked horns in a territorial dispute that provoked fears of armed conflict breaking out between the two.