Obama says U.S.-Japan treaty covers disputed isles, but no new 'red line'

TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said that the U.S.-Japan security treaty covers islands at the centre of a Sino-Japanese dispute but that he had not drawn any new "red line" over the islands, emphasising the need to resolve maritime disputes peacefully. Sino-Japanese relations have long been plagued by conflicting claims over a group of tiny East China Sea islets, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Obama made the remarks at a joint news conference after a summit meeting on Thursday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (Reporting by Edmund Klamann; Editing by Alex Richardson)