A female giant panda donated by China to Taiwan four years ago gave birth to a cub on Saturday after being artificially inseminated, the Taipei city government said.

Yuan Yuan and her partner Tuan Tuan have become star attractions in Taipei Zoo in the island's capital since their arrival from China in late 2008 amid improving ties between the two sides.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday urged progress on a code of conduct to govern the hotly disputed South China Sea, after ally the Philippines warned of a Chinese military build-up in the strategically vital waters.

"We very much hope to see progress on a substantive code of conduct to help ensure stability in this vital region," Kerry told foreign ministers of Southeast Asian nations at a meeting in Brunei.

A shallow 5.4-magnitude earthquake hit off the east coast of Taiwan Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The quake struck at 7:51 am (23:51 GMT Friday) centered 62 kilometers (38 miles) east of Hualien city at a depth of 20 kilometers, with tremors felt in the capital Taipei for a few seconds.

A strong earthquake jolted Taiwan on Sunday, killing two people and injuring at least 21 others and causing panicked shoppers to rush out of a shaking multi-story department store, officials said.

Another earthquake jolted the southern Philippines late Saturday, injuring at least 33 people and damaging more than 140 houses.

The Philippines on Tuesday allowed Taiwan government experts to see video footage of the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by a Filipino coastguard vessel, officials said.

The viewing of the video was a key demand by Taiwan to settle the controversy that has severely strained ties between the two parties.

Taiwan on Saturday protested to the Philippines for sending naval ships to disputed South China Sea islands in the latest diplomatic spat between the two governments.

"The foreign ministry expresses its serious concern and firm opposition over the Philippines' dispatch of naval vessels to Renai (Second Thomas) Shoal in the Spratly Islands," it said in a statement.

Taiwan held a military exercise Thursday in waters near the northern Philippines in response to the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman, after rejecting repeated apologies from Manila.

President Ma Ying-jeou reiterated that the Philippines should take formal responsibility for the death of the 65-year-old, shot last week by Philippine coastguards who said his vessel intruded into Philippine waters.

Taiwan stepped up pressure on Manila Tuesday, saying it would conduct a naval drill in waters near the Philippines if Manila did not officially apologize for the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman.

Taiwan has demanded the Philippines apologize by midnight Tuesday (1600 GMT) over the killing of the 65-year-old fisherman by coastguards last week or face a potential freeze in sending workers to the island.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino called for calm Monday amid an escalating dispute with Taiwan over the death of a Taiwanese fisherman in an incident involving the Filipino coastguard.

Aquino said Manila's de facto embassy in Taiwan was in talks with Taiwanese foreign ministry officials and had assured them an investigation was being carried out into last week's incident in which the fisherman was shot dead.

Chinese government ships temporarily entered the territorial waters of disputed Tokyo-controlled islands on Tuesday, Japan's coastguard said.

The three surveillance ships were navigating for about five and a half hours in the 12-nautical-mile limit around the Senkakus, which Beijing claims and calls the Diaoyus, the coastguard said.