TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Taiwan’s ruling party chief has left for a fence-mending trip to Japan following disputes over competing claims to a group of uninhabited East China Sea islands.

Nationalist Party chief Wu Poh-hsiung says Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou hopes to maintain a "special partnership" with Japan by putting aside their territorial disputes. Wu left Sunday for a six-day visit.

Ma strongly criticized Tokyo in June after a Japanese patrol ship sank a Taiwanese fishing boat after allegedly entering waters near the disputed Senkaku islands.

Japanese authorities recently agreed to compensate the sunken ship’s owner with 10 million New Taiwan dollars ($300,000).