Vietnam named a "president" for the government body overseeing the disputed Paracel islands, which are occupied by China, an official and press reports said yesterday.

"It's a matter of the sacred earth of the homeland... and we are going to continue our struggle to defend the integrity and the maritime sovereignty of the islands," Dang Cong Ngu was quoted as saying by the VNExpress news website.

China has administered the islands, which also claimed by Taiwan, since 1974 when its troops overran a South Vietnamese outpost shortly before the end of the Vietnam war.

Ngu was named president of the Paracel district People's Committee at a ceremony in central Danang, a civic official in the city said

In 2007 several hundred Vietnamese marched in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to protest a decision by China to set up a local government unit which would include the Paracels and another disputed island group, the Spratlys, under its zone of authority.