A conference in Osaka in Japan calling the Nanking massacre a lie is to go ahead, despite protests from the Chinese Government.

The organisers of Sunday's conference - entitled The Verification of Nanking, the biggest lie of the 20th Century - say they will prove that accounts of the massacre are grossly exaggerated.

The conference will include video testimony from Japanese military and police officers who were in Nanking in 1937. A revisionist professor will explain his view that accounts of the massacre are inflated.

Disputed events

What actually happened when the Japanese army captured the Chinese city has been the subject of intense historical debate.

China says the Japanese killed 300,000 civilians; other historians put the death toll at at least 140,000. But some in Japan believe that no atrocities took place.

The conference is to be held in Osaka's international peace centre, which is administered by the local government.

Officials say they cannot cancel the event as it would infringe on the constitutional right to freedom of speech. But they said they had carried lengthy discussions before deciding to go ahead.

The centre also pointed out that it has also shown exhibitions which say the Japanese soldiers did commit atrocities in Nanking.

'Flimsy evidence'

The Chinese Government has protested against the meeting, as have peace groups in Japan.

The event is being held by the Group to rectify one-sided War Exhibitions, which believes popular accounts of Japan's wartime actions are biased and based on flimsy evidence.

It believes the events in Nanking were part of a war and that soldiers, not civilians, were killed.