People are still being killed when weapons are unearthed

The ruling, at the Tokyo District Court, found in favour of 13 people who said that they or their relatives had suffered from exposure to poison gas and explosions caused by the abandoned weapons.

Beijing has repeatedly urged Japan to speed up the disposal of the estimated 700,000 chemical weapons left in China.

The issue was highlighted again last month, when one man was killed and more than 30 injured by mustard gas in north-eastern China.

Two weeks ago, more than a million people signed an online petition demanding compensation for Chinese victims.

The 13 plaintiffs - seven survivors of chemical exposure and six relatives of those who had died - brought the action against Japan in December 1996.

They demanded a total of 200 million yen ($1.8m) for injuries suffered between 1974 and 1995.

Presiding judge Yoshihiro Katayama said that if the Japanese Government had provided China with more information on the weapons' location, "many weapons might have been disposed of safely".

After the ruling, Li Chen, one of the plaintiffs, urged the Tokyo administration to not appeal against the decision.

"I ask the Japanese Government to work with China to come up with measures to completely eliminate the weapons," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Mr Chen suffers from respiratory difficulties, dizziness and nausea after being exposed to poison gas in 1974, after coming across an unused shell in a river bed.

Monday's decision was in contrast with a ruling in May at the same court, which rejected damage claims by other Chinese nationals.

At the time, chief judge Takashi Saito said that while he acknowledged the Japanese army had left unused weapons in China, it was "very difficult" for Japan to search for munitions in another country.

Japan's wartime record in China is a regular source of tension between the two governments.

Monday's case is one of several writs lodged against the Japanese Government alleging damage or injury because of the weapons.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that up to 2,000 people have died since 1945, after coming into contact with the weapons.