Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said the main nuclear powers, the United States and Russia, should lead the disarmament drive and "China and other nuclear powers" including India, Pakistan and Israel, should follow suit.

Speaking on the eve of a Beijing visit by Japan's Premier Taro Aso, Nakasone said: "China's strategic direction is unclear... It is modernising its nuclear arsenals while it has not tackled nuclear arms reduction.

"In addition, it has not disclosed any information," he said.

Nakasone pointed to the threat posed by communist North Korea, which early this month fired a rocket over Japan and then, angered by a UN condemnation of the launch, said it would resume its nuclear weapons programme.

"In addition to the North Korean nuclear development, Iran's nuclear programme is another global issue of urgency," he said, calling on Tehran to "restore the trust of the international community".

Nakasone urged nuclear powers -- also including Britain and France -- to adopt "a culture of information disclosure" on the number of nuclear weapons, delivery vehicles and stockpiles of fissile materials at their disposal.

Early next year, Nakasone said, Japan would host an international nuclear disarmament conference.

"Japan is the only country which can hand down to the world and to the next generation the (memory of the) terrible devastation that nuclear weapons can deliver and provide objective facts," Nakasone said.

The two US atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 killed more than 210,000 people, either instantly or in the following weeks. Japan surrendered less than a week later, ending World War II.

"Japan has a mission to pass on the facts of the horrific tragedy which occurred in August 1945 in the two cities, transcending different political positions and ideologies," the foreign minister said.

Early this month Japan was among nations that praised Obama's pledge to lead a quest for nuclear weapons-free world by cutting stockpiles, curtailing tests, reducing fissile production and securing loose nuclear material.

Obama said he would seek Senate approval of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and stressed that "as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act".

Nakasone said Tokyo would also host a "nuclear safety conference" later this year to help Asian countries safeguard civilian nuclear facilities.

As an industrial powerhouse poor in energy resources, Japan draws about 30 percent of its total power from its 53 nuclear plants.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday -- as his security forces battled Taliban extremists -- that the "nuclear capabilities in Pakistan are in safe hands" and "under extra security."

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