The government said it would not seek to overturn a court ruling last month ordering Nagasaki city to pay allowances for a South Korean who survived the nuclear bombing and died last year in his homeland.

"I made a political decision ... given the aging of atomic bomb survivors and the grave fact that they were exposed to the bombs in Japan," Health and Welfare Minister Hidehisa Otsuji told reporters.

The welfare ministry as early as next month will allow survivors abroad to apply for state benefits through Japanese diplomatic missions where they live, he said.

Japan's government, which provides benefits for atomic bomb survivors, decided in 2001 to extend more support to those living overseas after an official panel argued it was unfair to offer less help to victims abroad.

But the system still required survivors to come to Japan to apply in person for medical assistance and allowances -- a huge hurdle for those who are aged and sick.

Thousands of victims of the world's only nuclear bombings were Koreans, many of them forced laborers brought during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The welfare ministry estimates some 3,600 atomic bomb survivors now live outside of Japan with about two-thirds of them believed to be South Koreans.

Of the 3,600, some 1,300 people have not received help as they cannot come to Japan. Supporters for North Koreans say another 900 survivors are in the seclusive Stalinist country, which has no diplomatic relations with Japan.

The government decision came hours ahead of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize, with speculation rife that it could be awarded to opponents of nuclear weapons to mark the 60th anniversary of the world's only atomic attacks.

In the case leading to Friday's decision, the Fukuoka High Court on September 26 ruled Nagasaki must pay funeral expenses and other allowances to the widow of Choi Gye-Chol, a bomb survivor who died a year earlier in the South Korean city of Busan at age 78.

Paek Nak-Im, the widow of Choi, said she was "relieved" by the government's change of stance.

"I only wish my husband were alive. I want to report this to his grave," Jiji Press news agency quoted her as saying.

His daughter, Choi Mi-Sook, said she was "filled with deep emotion, considering the hardship my father had gone through."

Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito, who had urged the central government not to appeal, hailed Friday's decision, calling it "very gratifying." The city is obligated to accept the legal advice of Tokyo, which funnels funds for nuclear survivors to local governments.

The US bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 killed about 140,000 people, almost half the city, either immediately or in the months that followed from radiation injuries or horrific burns.

Three days later, an even more powerful nuclear bomb flattened Nagasaki, killing another 70,000 people. Japan surrendered less than a week afterward.

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