TAIPEI - Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou on Monday demanded an apology from the island's former leader Lee Teng-hui for his remarks that the Diaoyu Islands belonged to Japan.

Lee should retract his "serious misstatement" on the islands during his trip to Japan and apologize to Taiwan's public, Ma said in an article published in one of Taiwan's major newspapers.

From the perspectives of history, geography, geology and international law, Ma expounded that the Diaoyu Islands have been under China's effective jurisdiction since hundreds of years ago and have never been a "terra nullius" as Japan has claimed.

Lee, also former Kuomintang chairman, is known for his pro-Japan stance.

According to Ma, Lee in 1997 claimed that the Diaoyu Islands should be counted into the total area of Taiwan's Yilan County. Such remarks fully demonstrated Lee's inconsistency, Ma said.