On Monday Japanese government officials confirmed that a poison gas accident in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou which injured three people last week was caused by such weapons.

But a Japanese Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying that China was slow in dealing with the matter while Japan was willing to speed up the disposal process.

"We've noticed the relevant reports. China has lodged representations to the Japanese side and asked for clarification," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.

He said Beijing has worked to speed up the process. "It is the Japanese side that should take more measures to push forward the process of destroying the chemical weapons."

Liu said that abandoning chemical weapons in China, which still pose a threat, "constituted a serious crime committed by the Japanese army during its aggression against China."

He urged Tokyo strictly to adhere to the Convention on the Banning of Chemical Weapons and the memorandum on the destruction of chemical weapons reached between the two governments.

The Japanese government should earnestly shoulder its responsibilities and destroy the abandoned chemical weapons as soon as possible, he said.

In August 2003, a leak of mustard gas killed one Chinese and sickened 43 on a construction site.

Japan estimates that 700,000 chemical weapons were abandoned by its army in China while Chinese experts put the figure at at least two million.

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