TOKYO, June 2: Japan, the only country ever to suffer an atomic bomb attack, will assure worried Asian neighbours that the world’s second largest economy will never arm itself with nuclear weapons, Japanese officials said on Sunday.

Japan was scrambling to contain the fallout from remarks by a senior official who suggested the country could abandon a decades-old ban on nuclear weapons.

“The Japanese government will do whatever it take to explain to the countries of the world, especially Asian neighbours, that Japan will never possess nuclear weapons,” a Japanese government official told Reuters.

On Saturday, Japanese media quoted a unidentified senior government official as saying Tokyo could review its self-imposed “three principles” which ban the possession, production and import of nuclear arms.

“The principles are just like the constitution. But in the face of calls to amend the constitution, the amendment of the principles is also likely,” Kyodo news agency quoted the official as saying.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper on Sunday quoted the official as saying he did not mean to say Tokyo could go nuclear.

“That was not what I really meant to say... It is not true that the current government is considering changing or reviewing the three non-nuclear principles,” the official said.

Mindful of a possible backlash from Asian neighbours such as China and South Korea, Koizumi moved quickly to deny that his government would break with the nuclear taboo.

On Sunday, the official came under fire from both the ruling and opposition parties for his “careless” remarks.

“It was a careless statement we must not forgive,” Nobutaka Machimura, Deputy Secretary General of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said.

“No one in the LDP believes Japan should possess nuclear weapons.”

Opposition legislators said they would grill the official as well as Koizumi in parliament this week.

“Japan should argue for the abolition of nuclear weapons at the time when India and Pakistan, both of which have nuclear weapons, are in a dangerous situation,” said Naoto Kan, Secretary General of the main opposition Democratic Party.

“But to the contrary, he mentioned the possibility of possessing nuclear weapons. I can’t believe it.”—Reuters