Ambassador Le Hoai Trung

But Ambassador Le Hoai Trung said in an interview with The Associated Press that Beijing refuses to engage in dialogue and insists there is no dispute, claiming the area around the rig belongs to China.

The escalation in tensions is the most serious in years between Vietnam and its massive northern neighbor, which claims nearly all of the South China Sea.

China sent the rig into the area on May 1, provoking a confrontation with Vietnamese ships, complaints from Hanoi and street protests.

Trung said "some extreme elements" provoked by China's deployment of the rig undertook actions which the government "very much regrets." He said many suspects have been arrested and prosecuted, and the government has taken measures to prevent a repetition of the violence.

Both Vietnam and China have taken the dispute over the rig to the United Nations, circulating rival documents among the U.N. General Assembly's 193 member states. Vietnam has said it is considering legal action against China in an international court.

Trung said Vietnam has "the legal basis and historical evidence to affirm our sovereign rights over the area" where the rig is deployed, which the country says is part of its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

The ambassador said China's refusal to discuss the dispute is provocative and raises "serious concerns."

"We don't want to be provocative with this issue," he said. "We want to have negotiations, to have dialogue, or any other means of peaceful settlement of the dispute."

He added, "Up until now we exercise our restraint, but of course we always, like any other country, reserve the right of self-defense."

Trung stressed, however, that after decades of war the Vietnamese people want peace "and friendly relations with China."