By Laurie Chen
BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Recent live-fire drills by China's navy in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand were "totally in line with international law", a spokesperson for its defence ministry said on Thursday.
The comment by Wu Qian at a monthly briefing in Beijing follows concerns voiced by both countries' officials that they did not receive adequate warning of the drills in international waters, which forced commercial airlines to divert flights.
Reports in Chinese state media this week confirmed the presence of three ships - a Type 055 destroyer, a Type 054 frigate and a replenishment vessel - in the Tasman Sea.
The full extent of the drills is not known but the state-backed Global Times newspaper posted pictures of the Type 055 destroyer, China's most advanced naval ship, firing its deck guns.
It is not yet known if it tested the cruise missiles among its armaments.
The three Chinese ships were south of Tasmania within Australia's exclusive economic zone and were now moving west, the New Zealand Defence Force said on Wednesday.
Some online trackers put the Chinese task force 160 nautical miles east of Hobart or within Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen in Beijing and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; writing by Farah Master and Greg Torode; Editing by Kim Coghill and Clarence Fernandez)
