Japan has urged China to cut its nuclear arsenal or at least to stop stockpiling more atomic weapons, prompting a strong reaction from Beijing at their foreign ministers' talks, officials said Sunday.

The rare demand came when Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi at regional talks in South Korea Saturday, said Kazuo Kodama, the press secretary of Japan's foreign ministry.

The Japanese minister said China was the only one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- which also includes the United States, Britain, France and Russia -- that was still accumulating nuclear weapons.

"Amongst the P5, it is only China which is increasing its nuclear arsenal," Okada told Yang during the talks on Saturday, according to Kodama.

"Therefore I would like to request the Chinese government either to reduce the number of nuclear arsenals or at least commit ourselves not to increase its nuclear arsenals from the current level," he quoted Okada as saying.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement on Sunday Yang had repudiated Okada's remarks and defended Beijing's nuclear policy.

"Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi refuted the irresponsible remarks by Japan on the spot," Ma said in the statement.

"He pointed out that China's nuclear strategy and nuclear policy is transparent. China's nuclear disarmament proposals and efforts are obvious. China's position is legitimate, transparent, and above reproach."

Yang emphasised China always advocates that nuclear weapons should be completely forbidden and destroyed completely, and it also firmly pursues a nuclear strategy of self-defence, Ma said.

China was the only nuclear-armed country that adhered to the no-first-use policy and promised unconditionally not to use or threaten to use such weapons against nuclear-free states or nuclear-free regions, Ma cited Yang as saying.

Yang stressed China never took part in any nuclear arms race and never deployed any nuclear weapons in other countries, while maintaining its nuclear power at the lowest level needed for its security, according to Ma.

Yang had also said he hoped Okada would put first their two countries' bilateral ties and the fundamental interests of their peoples, Ma added.

Seoul's Yonhap news agency, citing an unnamed diplomatic source, said Chinese officials felt "uncomfortable" with Okada's demand and even considered boycotting part of the programme at the talks in the southern city of Gyeongju.

Okada and Yang arrived in Gyeongju on Saturday to attend the two-day foreign ministerial meeting with South Korean host Yu Myung-Hwan.

The three foreign ministers discussed issues including the growing tension over the sinking of a South Korean warship near the border with North Korea on March 26, which has led to suspicion falling on the communist North.

earlier related report
Okinawa residents protest at US air base
Tokyo (AFP) May 16, 2010 - Thousands of people Sunday formed a human chain surrounding a US Marines air base on Okinawa in a protest to demand the closure of the unpopular military facility on the southern Japanese island.

Organisers said 17,000 people turned out in pouring rain to form the 13-kilometre (eight-mile) chain as emotions ran high against the heavy US military presence on the island.

Anti-base sentiment intensified after Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama backtracked on a key election pledge last year to scrap a pact with Washington and promised to move the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma off Okinawa.

Hatoyama recently told Okinawans that he had decided to honour the 2006 plan agreed between the US and Japan's previous government, and now wanted to move the base from residential Ginowan city to a coastal area in Henoko, Nago.

After the human chain was formed, Ginowan city mayor Yoichi Iha told reporters that Hatoyama had to stand by his original promise.

"We have publicly demonstrated the local public's opposition to the central government, which is trying to change its position to the relocation within the prefecture," he said.

"I want the government to negotiate with the United States by maintaining their original position of getting (the base) removed, at least outside Okinawa," he said.

Okinawa hosts more than half the 47,000 US troops stationed in Japan.