Eight bombs abandoned by Japanese troops during World War II have been found in the courtyard of a house in Suifenhe City in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, police said on Wednesday.

The first bomb was identified by patrolling police in a corner of the courtyard of Li Haichuan's home in Jianxi Village, Funing Town, on Monday.

It was described as seriously eroded without a fuse, but still dangerous.

Police immediately sealed off the courtyard and excavated the courtyard, discovering seven more bombs.

Police believed the bombs were abandoned by Japanese troops during World War II, as they featured Japanese characters.

The bombs had been transferred to a safe place and sealed.

Suifenhe, bordering Russia, was a major battlefield during the World War II, and discoveries of dumped ordnance are not unusual.

On April 8, police in Hulin City, also in Heilongjiang, announced they had found 25 bombs abandoned by Japanese troops in a local village.

Chinese official statistics show Japan abandoned at least two million tons of chemical weapons at about 40 sites in 15 provinces at the end of World War II, most of which are in the three northeast provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning.

China and Japan joined the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997. Two years later, they signed a memorandum, under which Japan is obliged to remove weapons by this month and provide all necessary funds, equipment and personnel for their retrieval and destruction.

But the Japanese government has asked for an extension of the disposal deadline to April 2012.

(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2007)