China has allegedly deployed fighter jets to one of the disputed islands in the South China Sea, the same location where it has stationed surface-to-air missiles, two US officials said on Tuesday. China is, however, yet to confirm the presence of fighter jets in the region.

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This dramatic escalation to the South China Sea dispute came as US Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks on pressing issues such as the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea.

                                                    Woody island

US intelligence officials claim to have spotted the Chinese jet fighters - Shenyang J-11s ("Flanker") and  Xian JH-7s ("Flounder") - on Woody island since the past week.

US intelligence officials, who spoke to Fox News on condition of anonymity, said the deployment of the fighter jets to the disputed Woody island came days after news that China had two batteries of HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles on the same island.

Officials estimate that China has "less than 10" fighter jets in the disputed Parcels islands.

                                                  'Defensive purposes'

At a press conference on Tuesday, Wang explained that the deployment of the missiles to the Woody island was for "defensive purposes."

Woody Island is the biggest island in the Paracel chain of islands in the South China and has been under the control of China since the 1950s.

The island has had a runway since the 1900s and has been under China's control despite being contested by Taiwan and Vietnam.

                                                   Spratly island

Following China's deployment of fighter jets to the island, US authorities and the claimant-countries have expressed concerns that Beijing may send the jets to the Spratly Islands in the south next.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday that China's military facilities on the Woody island is no different from the defense installations the US has built in Hawaii.

"There is no difference between China's deployment of necessary national defense facilities on its own territory and the defense installation by the U.S. in Hawaii , she said.

                                                   End patrols

Meanwhile, Wang told Kerry during their talks that he "hoped"  that "close up" naval and aerial patrols by the US Navy over the contested islands would be halted

"We don't hope to see any more close-up military reconnaissance or the dispatch of missile destroyers or strategic bombers to the South China Sea," said Foreign Minister Wang.

Kerry, for his part, told Wang that he wanted China to end its militarization of the disputed islands in the South China Sea.

TagsChinese fighter jets, Woody island, foreign minister Wang Yi, US intelligence, 'close-up naval patrols'