UPDATED: 08:53, July 26, 2006

Japanese experts arrive in NE China to dispose of chemical weapons

A team of 15 Japanese experts arrived in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Tuesday to deal with 677 newly discovered chemical weapons.

They will differentiate, register, pack and seal up the abandoned weapons in the next few days and then transfer them to a temporary storage site, said local authorities.

The stored weapons will be destroyed together, according to a Japanese official.

The weapons were excavated in Suihua City from June 27 to July 2, when workers were laying the foundations of a shopping mall in the downtown area. Some of the weapons have fuses.

The urban population of Suihua is 1.44 million. The weapons were hurriedly removed to a safe place.

Four accidents took place from 2003 to 2005 when abandoned chemical weapons poisoned 49 Chinese people, one of whom died.

The weapons were left behind during World War II when Japan retreated.

It is not yet known how many chemical weapons are left. From February 1995 to April 2006, Sino-Japanese experts retrieved 37,499 such weapons.

According to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and their Destruction signed by the Chinese and Japanese Governments that came into effect in 1997, Japan is duty-bound to destroy all abandoned weapons.

On July 10, Japanese experts helped remove 210 chemical weapons in Heilongjiang's Ning'an City to the storage area there.

China has established seven storage areas for abandoned chemical weapons, three of which are in Heilongjiang.

Japan occupied Heilongjiang in 1931 and surrendered in 1945.