Just days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged South Korea and Japan to cool tensions over a territorial island dispute, both countries geared up Tuesday for a propaganda war over the issue.

Their respective foreign ministries both unveiled requests for hefty budget increases to support efforts to publicize their respective claims, at home and abroad, to islands known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.

"We've asked the National Assembly to approve 5 billion won ($4.4 million) for projects aimed at strengthening our sovereignty over Dokdo," a South Korean ministry spokesman told AFP.

The increase, if approved, would more than double the existing budget.

The spokesman refused to give a breakdown of how the money would be spent, but Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified ministry official as saying it would primarily be used for a worldwide publicity drive.

The Japanese ministry said it was asking the central government to set aside 560 million yen ($7 million) to promote its side of the argument over the islands, along with other territorial disputes.

The conservative Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun reported Tuesday that the government would "place ads in 70 national and regional newspapers from September 11 for a week" to highlight its case for sovereignty over the Takeshima islets.

It marks the first time the government has used newspaper adverts to buttress its argument, the newspaper said.

Later Tuesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said Seoul was prepared to buy its own ad space in Japanese newspapers.

"We will secure the budget to run ads saying 'Dokdo is our territory' in Japanese media," Kim, on a visit to Oslo with President Lee Myung-bak, was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

The rocky outcroppings at the center of the dispute are located roughly halfway between the two countries in the Sea of Japan.

They are currently occupied by South Korea, but claimed by both countries.

The dispute flared with renewed passion after President Lee provoked an angry reaction from Tokyo by paying a surprise visit to the islands last month.

Tensions reached a point where Clinton felt compelled at an Asia-Pacific summit on Sunday to ask both countries to "lower the temperature" and adopt a "calm and restrained approach" in seeking a resolution.

"This region of the world is the economic engine in what is still a fragile global economy," she said Sunday.

"It's not in the interest of the Asian countries, it's certainly not in the interest of the US or the rest of the world, to raise doubts and uncertainties about the stability and peace in the region."