Japan opposition parties formally called Thursday for resignation of Foreign Minister Taro Aso over repeated statements suggesting the country debate developing atomic weapons, despite its long-held anti-nuclear warfare policy.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quickly rejected the demand, but the call underlined mounting pressure on Abe to rein in more hawkish Cabinet members who have pushed for bolstered defences in the wake of North Korea's first-ever nuclear bomb test last month.

The call for Aso's resignation was submitted by four of Japan's opposition parties in an afternoon meeting with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimamura, said Yukio Hatoyama, a top leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

"Since Japan is a country that should take leadership in calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons, it is unacceptable for Foreign Minister Aso, the top diplomatic official with the greatest international influence, to repeatedly call for the need to have a nuclear debate," Hatoyama said. "The wrong message has already been transmitted to the world."

The opposition parties asked the government to reply to their demand by Monday, but Abe responded only hours later, saying Aso will stay on as Japan's top diplomat.

"Since we agree to abide by the three non-nuclear principles, I don't think there's any problem with him," Aso said, of Japan's long-standing tenets not to possess or make nuclear weapons or allow them on Japanese soil.

"I have no intention of dismissing him," Abe said.

Abe had tried to allay concerns only a day earlier by insisting that Japan will not stray from its no-nuclear weapons policy.

(China Daily November 10, 2006)