VIENTIANE (REUTERS) - International tension over maritime disputes in the South China Sea should be toned down, China's Foreign Minister said on Monday (July 25), after a "deeply flawed" international court ruled against Beijing's expansive claims in the South China Sea.

The United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague handed an emphatic legal victory to the Philippines in the maritime dispute earlier this month.

The court ruling was built on flimsy legal grounds, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in the Laos capital of Vientiane on Monday.

The Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) supported China's stance that disputes should be resolved bilaterally, he said after meeting Asean foreign ministers on Monday.

To that end, Asean backed plans for the Philippines and China to hold direct talks on their dispute, he said. "The page had now been turned" on the issue after the tension caused by the court ruling, he said.

The relationship between Asean and China should not be defined by the maritime issues, he added.