The Japanese Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that the government had concluded that a shell containing toxic liquid that injured two Chinese schoolboys had been left by the Japanese military at the end of World War II.

"We feel it is quite regrettable and extend our sincere sympathy to the victims," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said in a prepared statement.

On July 23, two boys uncovered a 50-centimeter-long canister filled with a chemical when they were playing by a river close to their village. One of the boys pried open the rusted weapon and the liquid splashed onto their fingers and legs.

Both of them are being treated in a local hospital and are recovering from their wounds.

More than 670,000 chemical munitions -- 90 percent of all those left -- were dumped in the Dunhua City area in northeast China's Jilin Province. At least 2,000 Chinese have become victims of the discarded weapons since the war ended.

To comply with its plan to dispose of the chemical weapons left in China by April 2007, Japan will work with China to set up a disposal facility in Dunhua as quickly as possible.

The Japanese chemical weapons team investigating the most recent case left Dunhua on August 2, but plans to return in the middle of August to begin work on the plant. The team's Chinese colleagues are scheduled to arrive in Antu, a city neighboring Dunhua, on August 4.

Currently, all chemical weapons that are discovered are stored in one of six designated areas to await disposal.

(China Daily, China.org.cn, August 4, 2004)