Japan and China have asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to give them five more years to complete a Japan-led project to collect and dispose of abandoned wartime chemical weapons in China, after finding it difficult to meet the April 2007 deadline, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

The nations made the request Thursday to the international agency based in The Hague, Netherlands, to extend the deadline to April 2012, as there are still an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 shells in Dunhua, Jilin Province, left by the Imperial Japanese Army at the end of World War II, the ministry said.

Japan has collected and disposed of about 40,000 shells in China since 2000 in line with the Chemical Weapons Convention. But many of the abandoned shells remain untouched in the Harbaling area in Dunhua due to a delay in work to build essential disposal facilities in the area.

Japan and China reached an agreement in July 1999 that stated Japan would provide money, technology and facilities to collect and dispose of abandoned weapons in China.

The Japan Times: Saturday, April 29, 2006