Japan PM tries damage control over WW2 sex slaves

By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought on Sunday to contain fallout from his remarks about women forced to act as wartime sex slaves for Japanese soldiers as the furore threatened to cloud summits with Chinese and U.S. leaders.

Abe sparked outrage abroad when he said in February there was no evidence that Japan's government or army had forced the mostly Asian women to work in military brothels during World War Two.

Abe has endorsed a 1993 government apology to the "comfort women", as they are euphemistically known in Japan, but has also said Tokyo would not apologise again even if U.S. lawmakers adopted a resolution calling for a new and unambiguous apology.

On Sunday, Abe repeated that the 1993 apology remained in effect. "We have stated our heartfelt apologies to the 'comfort women' at the time who suffered greatly and were injured in their hearts," Abe said in an interview with NHK television. "I want to say that that sentiment has not changed at all."

The furore precedes a visit to Tokyo in mid-April by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Abe's trip to Washington later that month.

In a sign the Bush administration was growing concerned, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer last week advised Tokyo not to renege on the 1993 apology, known as the "Kono Statement" after the chief cabinet secretary in whose name it was issued.

"No friend of Japan would want Japan to back away from the Kono Statement," Schieffer told Japanese reporters on Friday.

China, apparently keen to keep on track an improvement in ties begun after Abe took office last September, has called on Tokyo to face up to its past but has been restrained in its comments so far.