Former South Korean comfort women, who were forced to become sex slaves by Japanese soldiers during World War II, chant anti-Japanese slogans at a protest in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul March 7, 2007. [Reuters]

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, under fire abroad for denying government involvement in forcing women to serve as wartime sex slaves, said on Monday he was "apologising here and now as the prime minister".

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Abe said earlier this month there was no proof Japan's government or army kidnapped women to work as "comfort women", as the wartime sex slaves are known in Japan.

He has also said he stood by a 1993 apology known as the Kono Statement that acknowledged official involvement in the brothels. But he has said there would be no new apology even if U.S. lawmakers adopted a resolution seeking one.

"I am apologising here and now as the prime minister, and it is as stated in the Kono Statement," Abe told a parliamentary committee in response to a question by an opposition lawmaker.

"As I frequently say, I feel sympathy for the people who underwent hardships, and I apologise for the fact that they were placed in this situation at the time," Abe told the committee.

The prime minister's earlier comments denying official involvement in kidnapping women, mostly Asian, to work in the wartime brothels have angered Seoul and risked straining ties with Washington, where U.S. Congressman Michael Honda has introduced a resolution calling for Japan to make an unambiguous apology for the suffering of the sex slaves.

No vote on the resolution, which Abe has criticised as full of errors, is expected until May, after Abe visits Washington for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush.

The Asian Women's Fund, set up in 1995 and partly funded by the Japanese government, has provided the "comfort women" with 2 million yen ($17,000) each in compensation and medical support, along with a letter of apology signed by previous prime ministers.

But many of the women have refused to accept the money, saying the Japanese government itself should provide the compensation in recognition of its responsibility.