* Dollar drops as Japan ministers quash corporate tax-cut
hopes
* Nikkei skids 2.1 pct, moving away from one-week closing
high
* Euro buoyed as data confirms 18-month euro zone recession
over


By Lisa Twaronite
TOKYO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Asian stocks fell on Thursday and
the dollar slipped as uncertainty over when the U.S. Federal
Reserve will start to pare back its stimulus offset a brighter
economic picture in Europe.
Japanese shares led losses, after cabinet ministers shot
down a media report earlier this week that the government is
considering cuts in corporate taxes.
European shares were expected to fall slightly from
2-1/2-month highs on Thursday, with financial spreadbetters
predicting Britain's FTSE 100 to open 7 points lower, or
0.1 percent Germany's DAX to drop 8 points, or 0.1
percent and France's CAC 40 to open flat. U.S. stock
futures were little changed.
The dollar tumbled about 0.5 percent against the Japanese
currency to 97.63 yen, while the euro fell 0.2 percent to
buy 129.76 yen.
Against a basket of major currencies, the dollar fell
about 0.3 percent as the euro rose about 0.3 percent to $1.3292
.
The stronger yen and fading tax-cut hopes pressured Tokyo's
Nikkei stock average, which skidded 2.1 percent, off a
one-week closing high hit on Wednesday. Thin summer conditions
amplified moves, market participants said.
Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga and Finance
Minister Taro Aso both downplayed this week's report in the
Nikkei business daily that the government is considering
lowering the corporate tax. Aso said such cuts would not have an
immediate impact on the economy.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
slipped 0.2 percent.
Data on Wednesday showed that the economies of Germany and
France grew more quickly than expected in the second quarter,
pulling the euro zone out of an 18-month recession.



MIXED SIGNALS
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes
edged away from nearly two-year highs hit earlier this week.
A selloff of U.S. Treasuries on Monday and Tuesday saw
yields post their biggest two-day increase since early July on
speculation that signs of U.S. and European economic growth
might lead the Fed to taper its $85 billion-a-month in asset
purchases as early as September.
A Reuters poll on Wednesday showed a majority of economists
expect the Fed to reduce bond purchases at its Sept. 17-18
policy meeting.
" The market is getting nervous about tapering. I expect that
to happen in September and the dollar to start rising then. But
it is likely to go through some adjustment before that as there
are concerns that tapering could spark risk-off trading as it
did in May-June," said Hideki Amikura, forex manager at Nomura
Trust and Banking.
Recent U.S. data sent mixed signals on the strength of the
economic recovery, and comments from Fed officials fell short of
clarifying the bank's policy outlook.
St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on
Wednesday that the Fed risks pushing inflation even lower if it
tapers bond purchases too aggressively, and could take a more
cautious approach by initially only scaling back by a small
amount.
U.S. producer prices were flat in July, data on Wednesday
showed, suggesting domestic inflation will likely stay below the
Fed's 2 percent target for the foreseeable future.

Data on Thursday will include the July consumer price index,
industrial production, jobless claims for the most recent week
and a U.S. mid-Atlantic business survey.
In commodities markets, copper slipped 0.3 percent
to $7,296.50, moving away from a nine-week high hit on Tuesday.
Gold slipped from earlier highs, buying $1,339.27 per
ounce, after gaining around 1 percent in the previous session.
Brent crude prices rose 0.4 percent to $110.62 a
barrel, extending gains from the previous session on a drop in
U.S. oil inventories. Investors also feared unrest in Egypt
could choke key supply routes or spill over into key oil
producing nations.

By Emelia Sithole-Matarise

  LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Money markets are pricing out expectations of another European Central Bank interest rate cut as the euro zone returns to growth, though it is still seen lagging the United States and Britain in tightening policy.

  Forecast-beating growth in the currency bloc's two largest economies, Germany and France, led the euro zone out of its longest recession to date in the second quarter, data showed on Wednesday, following on the heels of robust manufacturing numbers last week.

  The improved economic outlook has led to a rise in short-term money market rates, as investors see less reason for the ECB to cut interest rates from their record low of 0.50 percent any time soon.

  Forward-looking Eonia rates have risen across the strip as investors price out a rate cut, with overnight Eonia rates seen rising to around 0.15 percent in December compared with the current 0.08 percent.

  The forward Eonia curve has steepened, as the rates indicated by contracts covering ECB meetings for the first half of next year have risen over the past two weeks more sharply than for near-term dates.

  " If the data continues to go in this strong direction, rate cut speculation will soon be a thing of the past," one money markets trader said.

  The shift in euro zone money markets mirrors moves in U.S. and UK markets where firm domestic economic data has bolstered expectations that rates may not stay at rock-bottom levels for as long as suggested by their central banks.

  Investors brought forward expectations of when UK interest rates would rise after data on Wednesday showed an improving job market and a surprise split among Bank of England policymakers over its forward guidance.

  UK money markets are now pricing in a greater chance of a rate hike in 2015, a year earlier than suggested last week by the Bank of England.

  Wednesday's move takes markets' view of the BoE rate outlook back to where it was in late June, just before Canadian Mark Carney became BoE governor and called a rise in short-term money market rates " unwarranted."

  While scope for further easing may be waning, the ECB is still seen among the last of the world's major central banks to start hiking rates as the recovery in the euro zone is expected to lag U.S. and UK growth despite the strong showing by Germany.

  The gap between rates implied by forward euro overnight index swaps and three-month Euribor for 2015 has widened 7-8 basis points to 70 bps since early August.

  Commerzbank strategist Benjamin Schroder said this suggests the ECB could start raising borrowing costs at the end of 2015 rather than in early 2016 as indicated a couple of weeks ago.

  The U.S. Federal Reserve sparked an initial rise in bond yields and money market rates in June after it outlined plans to start cutting back its economic stimulus later this year. Fed fund rates are projecting a U.S. rate rise in early 2015.

  " We still expect this year to be a struggle in the euro zone and also next year," said Societe Generale economist Anatoli Annenkov. His team would review in September its current expectations for another ECB rate cut this year.

  " Looking at unemployment rates we think there's still a big grip on economic activity, especially in southern Europe, and we are concerned we will see headwinds from fiscal consolidation still needed in many countries."

* Investors worry Egypt unrest could spill into producer nations

  * Signs of increasing demand from China, U.S. also support prices

  * Coming up: U.S. weekly jobless claims at 1230 GMT (Updates prices)

  By Luke Pachymuthu

  SINGAPORE, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Brent crude prices climbed towards $111 per barrel on Thursday, extending gains from the previous session on a drop in U.S. oil inventories and worries over supplies from the Middle East and North Africa.

  As a state of emergency was declared by the Egyptian government following deadly clashes between riot police and supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi, investors feared that unrest could choke key supply routes such as the Suez Canal or spill over into key oil producing nations.

  " Egypt may not be a major oil producer but the Suez Canal is an important gateway, not just for oil flows but also for commodities. If there is any disruption or if the violence results in the shutting down of the canal, the impact will be quite severe," said Carl Larry, president of Houston-based consultancy Oil Outlook and Opinions.

  " It's like dominoes - if Egypt falls you're going to have ask yourself 'where next?'"

  Front-month September Brent, which expires on Thursday, was up 33 cents at $110.53 a barrel at 0625 GMT, while U.S. oil rose 27 cents to $107.12.

  " If the demand outlook is positive, then obviously any threat to supply or actual disruptions are going to give oil prices a big upside," Larry said, adding that recent economic data had brightened the prospects for oil demand in the United States, China and Europe.

  Egypt's Suez Canal and ports were operating normally despite the unrest gripping the country, shipping sources said on Wednesday.

  In OPEC nation Libya, the deputy oil minister said output had fallen to 600,000 barrels a day due to field problems, while the Ras Lanuf terminal remained shut a day after the state-run oil company had said it could not guarantee crude deliveries in September because of labour unrest at export terminals.

  U.S. crude inventories fell 2.8 million barrels, with stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma dropping for a sixth straight week to hit their lowest level since March, 2012.

  Data on Wednesday showed the economies of Germany and France grew more quickly than expected in the second quarter, pulling the euro zone out of an 18-month recession. (Editing by Joseph Radford and Richard Pullin)

By Yasmine Saleh and Tom Finn

  CAIRO (Reuters) - Security forces struggled to clamp a lid on Egypt on Thursday after hundreds of people were killed when authorities forcibly broke up camps of supporters protesting the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, in the worst nationwide bloodshed in decades.

  Islamists clashed with police and troops who used bulldozers, teargas and live fire on Wednesday to clear out two Cairo sit-ins that had become a hub of Muslim Brotherhood resistance to the military after it deposed Mursi on July 3.

  The clashes spread quickly, and a health ministry official said about 300 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured in fighting in Cairo, Alexandria and numerous towns and cities around the mostly Muslim nation of 84 million.

  The crackdown defied Western appeals for restraint and a peaceful, negotiated settlement to Egypt's political stand-off, prompting international statements of dismay and condemnation.

  The Muslim Brotherhood said the true death toll was far higher, with a spokesman saying 2,000 people had been killed in a " massacre." It was impossible to verify the figures independently given the extent of the violence.

  The military-installed government declared a month-long state of emergency and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Cairo and 10 other provinces, restoring to the army powers of arrest and indefinite detention it held for decades until the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in a 2011 popular uprising.

  The army insists it does not seek power and acted in response to mass demonstrations calling for Mursi's removal.

  Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who lent liberal political support to the ousting of Egypt's first freely elected president, resigned in dismay at the use force instead of a negotiated end to the six-week stand-off.

  " It has become difficult for me to continue bearing responsibility for decisions that I do not agree with and whose consequences I fear. I cannot bear the responsibility for one drop of blood," ElBaradei said.

  Other liberals and technocrats in the interim government did not follow suit. Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi spoke in a televised address of a " difficult day for Egypt" but said the government had no choice but to order the crackdown to prevent anarchy spreading.

  " We found that matters had reached a point that no self-respecting state could accept," he said.

  CHURCHES TARGETED

  Islamists staged revenge attacks on Christian targets in several areas, torching churches, homes and business after Coptic Pope Tawadros gave his blessing to the military takeover that ousted Mursi, security sources and state media said.

  Churches were attacked in the Nile Valley towns of Minya, Sohag and Assiut, where Christians escaped across the roof into a neighbouring building after a mob surrounded and hurled bricks at their place of worship, state news agency MENA said.

  The United States, the European Union, the United Nations and fellow Muslim power Turkey condemned the violence and called for the lifting of the state of emergency and an inclusive political solution to Egypt's crisis.

  An EU envoy involved in mediation efforts that collapsed last week said the authorities had spurned a plan for staged confidence-building measures that could have led to a political solution.

  The Brotherhood publicly rejected any plan that did not involve Mursi's restoration to office. An Egyptian military source said the army did not believe the Islamists would eventually agree to a deal and felt they were only stringing the diplomats along to gain time.

  In Cairo, police and soldiers aided by self-styled " popular committees" of civilian vigilantes armed with clubs and machetes enforced the curfew, searching cars and checking identity cards of people passing through makeshift checkpoints made of tires and concrete blocks.

  Despite the lockdown, hundreds of Mursi supporters tried to gather at El Iman mosque in the Cairo neighbourhood of Nasr City in an attempt to start a new sit-in to replace the main camp dispersed at nearby Rabaa al-Adawiya square, MENA reported.

  They chanted " down, down, military rule" and " police are thugs," a Reuters witness said.

  The protesters converted part of the mosque into a field hospital to tend to the wounded from the other sit-in, it said.

  " They killed us, those coup makers and their thugs. Help us people, help us!" shouted Magda Ali, a woman marcher who was forced to leave the Rabaa camp.

  Egyptian state television broadcast aerial footage of the burning remains of sprawling tent cities, as well as images of handmade guns it said were found at the sites. It also showed some video of alleged armed protesters shooting at police.

  Reuters witnesses saw no protesters armed with more than bricks, stones and sticks as black-clad central security police in riot gear poured out of vans firing teargas and snipers fired from rooftops.

  " DEPLORABLE"

  Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told a news conference 43 members of the police force were killed in the clashes.

  He vowed to restore Mubarak-era security after announcing, in a statement last month that chilled human rights campaigners, the return of notorious political police departments that had been scrapped after the 2011 revolution.

  Wednesday's death toll took the number of people killed in political violence since Mursi's fall to about 600, mostly Islamist supporters of the ousted president.

  Violence rippled out from Cairo, with Mursi supporters and security forces clashing in the cities of Alexandria, Minya, Assiut, Fayoum and Suez and in Buhayra and Beni Suef provinces.

  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the bloodshed in Egypt " deplorable" - a word U.S. diplomats rarely use - and urged all sides to seek a political solution.

  A U.S. official told Reuters that Washington was considering cancelling a major joint military exercise with Egypt, due this year, after the latest violence, in what would be a direct snub to the Egyptian armed forces.

  The " Bright Star" exercise has been a cornerstone of U.S.-Egyptian military relations and began in 1981 after the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel. The United States has already halted delivery of four F-16 fighter jets in a signal of its displeasure.

  Islamist militants with no direct link to the Brotherhood have staged almost daily attacks on security forces in the lawless Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel since Mursi's fall.

  In the latest violence, gunmen shot dead two policemen outside their station in El Arish in northern Sinai on Wednesday evening, MENA reported.

  (Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz, Michael Georgy and Tom Perry in Cairo, and Arshad Mohammed and Lesley Wroughton in Washington Writing by Paul Taylor Editing by Philip Barbara)

By Pracha Hariraksapitak

  BANGKOK, Aug 15 (Reuters) - The Thai government has no plans to resume an intervention scheme to buy rubber directly from farmers to shore up weak domestic prices, the agriculture minister said on Thursday.

  The absence of fresh government support could indicate the continuation of a subdued trend for rubber prices in Thailand, the world's biggest producer of the commodity, as it grapples with weak demand.

  A price slump led the Thai government to run a scheme from October, 2012 to May this year under which it bought rubber at higher-than-market prices from farmers and stocked it.

  The government approved a total of 45 billion baht ($1.44 billion) for the scheme and bought a total of 210,000 tonnes of smoked rubber sheet.

  " At this stage, we are not thinking about buying rubber," Yukol Limlaemthong told reporters after meeting with senior government and industry officials to seek ways to support prices.

  " We would offer soft loans for producers and farmers so they would get better liquidity to run business at lower costs. Then, farmers would be get better margin although prices that they sold are not very high," the minister added.

  A poor economic outlook cut rubber demand and dragged benchmark smoked rubber sheet (RSS3) from a record high of $6.40 per kg in February 2011 to $2.80 in mid-2012, forcing the introduction of the intervention scheme. The price of RSS3 was $2.65 per kg on Thursday.

  Thailand has also run a similar intervention scheme for rice for which it has used up more than 600 billion, leaving it with little appetite to pump in more funds on farm intervention.

  The minister, though, said there was no plan to dump the government's stocks.

  " At this stage, we don't have any plan to sell the 210,000 rubber stocks on the market as it would hammer prices down further. We are thinking of using up the rubber domestically." ($1 = 31.3500 Thai baht) (Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

* Official accused of receiving more than $500,000 from Kernel Oil employees

  * Indonesia is trying to attract investment into oil sector

  * Latest high profile graft scandal in Indonesia

  By Fergus Jensen and Andjarsari Paramaditha

  JAKARTA, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Indonesia's anti-graft agency on Wednesday arrested the head of the energy regulator to probe allegations he took more than half a million dollars from an oil firm, piling more uncertainty on energy policy in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

  The arrest is a new blow to Indonesia's attempts to attract more investment from international energy companies, several of which have threatened to scale back operations due to uncertainty about the investment environment.

  The former OPEC member's oil output is declining, and the country has faced criticism for unclear regulations and complaints about a nationalist stance on resources.

  Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Agency (KPK) said SKKMigas Chairman Rudi Rubiandini had been caught taking around $400,000 in a black brief case and ownership documents for a BMW motorcycle from the owner of Singapore-based Kernel Oil, Simon Tanjaya. An additional $190,000 was found in the chairman's residence, KPK spokesman Johan Budi said.

  KPK said it was the biggest cash seizure by the agency in its 10-year history.

  Kernel Oil officials in Singapore and Indonesia declined to comment, while Rubiandini could not be reached for comment.

  The firm buys crude from Indonesia's SKKMigas and then sells it to international markets. It also supplies oil products to Indonesia.

  Finance Minister Chatib Basri told Reuters that while the government was committed to zero tolerance of corruption the case did send a " bad signal to investors."

  Some oil company officials were also shocked by the news.

  " This industry is already tough to deal with and it shouldn't be weighed down by this sort of scandal," said an official at a foreign oil firm with operations in Indonesia.

  The oil and gas sector is politically crucial, accounting for about a fifth of Indonesia's government revenue.

  Indonesia was once self-sufficient in oil and gas but has been struggling for years to attract investment to halt declining output from a peak of around 1.6 million barrels per day in 1995. Indonesia produced an average 831,000 bpd in the first half this year.

  LATEST HIGH-PROFILE GRAFT SCANDAL

  Rubiandini was appointed in January to head SKKMigas after the independent industry regulator BPMigas was declared unconstitutional. Some experts say the motivation was to gain greater control over the sector after SKKMigas was placed within the energy ministry.

  SKKMigas denied the arrest would damage Indonesia's oil operations. The agency has existing contracts with oil majors including BP Plc, Chevron and Exxon Mobil .

  " Operations will continue to run. There is no impact," Biantoro said. " For now, with the vacuum in the top post, there are no crucial issues that need to be decided upon."

  Energy Minister Jero Wacik said Rubiandini has been temporarily suspended as SKKMigas chairman and would be replaced by Vice Chairman Johanes Widjonarko.

  The SKKMigas chairman is the latest high-profile government official to be accused of corruption in Indonesia.

  KPK in December named Youth and Sports Minister Andi Alfian Mallarangeng as a corruption suspect, while senior police official Djoko Susilo is currently on trial for money laundering.

  While foreign investment continues to pour into the resource-rich country, there are growing concerns that rampant corruption and an incompetent bureaucracy could throttle growth and see that investment turned away.

By Sophie Knight

  KAWAUCHI, Japan (Reuters) - The most ambitious radiation clean-up ever attempted has proved costly, complex and time-consuming since the Japanese government began it more than two years in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. It may also fail.

  Doubts are mounting that the effort to decontaminate hotspots in an area the size of Connecticut will succeed in its ultimate aim - luring more than 100,000 nuclear evacuees back home.

  If thousands of former residents cannot or will not return, parts of the farming and fishing region could remain an abandoned wilderness for decades.

  In many areas, radiation remains well above targeted levels because of bureaucratic delays and ineffective work on the ground. As a result, some experts fears the $15 billion allocated to the scheme so far will be largely squandered.

  The deep-seated problems facing the clean-up are both economic and operational, according to a Reuters review of decontamination contracts and interviews with dozens of workers, managers and officials involved.

  In Kawauchi, a heavily forested village in Fukushima prefecture, decontamination crews have finished cleaning up houses, but few of their former inhabitants are prepared to move back. Just over 500 of the 3,000 people who once lived here have returned since the March 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant 25 km (15 miles) to the east.

  Even after being deemed safe enough for people to return, Kawauchi has no functioning hospital or high school.

  The mushrooms that used to provide a livelihood for foragers are now steeped in dangerous levels of caesium. The only jobs on offer in town are menial. Some houses are so mildewed after three summers of abandonment that they need to be torn down.

  The village has not only shrunk its population has also aged. While the elderly used to make up a third of the town, they now account for 70 percent of residents.

  The same pattern has played out across Fukushima as the nuclear accident turned the slow drip of urban flight by younger residents into a torrent, creating a demographic skew that decontamination is unlikely to reverse.

  Kawauchi is one of the 11 townships that were most heavily contaminated after the accident, when rain and snow showered radioactive particles onto the verdant hills here as the plume from the plant passed overhead. Half of it lies in the still-evacuated area where the national government has assumed control of the clean-up.

  " There is no comprehensive plan on how to rebuild the village," said Yasutsugu Igari, 34, who works in the reconstruction department at Kawauchi's village office. " It's the government that destroyed it, but now it's doing very little to help us re-create our lives."

  UNPRECEDENTED SCALE

  Masayoshi Yokota, who is in charge of decontamination, says he has heard that frustration before.

  " First they said they wouldn't come back unless we decontaminated. So we did that and told them they could come back," he said. " But then it was about jobs or that they didn't want to come back because they have children."

  Japan's plan to scrub clean the area around Fukushima and remove radioactive debris was beset by difficulties from the beginning.

  Nothing on the same scale had ever been attempted before. After the Chernobyl accident in 1986, highly contaminated houses were entombed in concrete and the surrounding area was abandoned.

  By contrast, Japan's government is attempting to bring background radiation levels in the most highly contaminated evacuation zone to an average of 1 millisievert per year once all the work is completed.

  That would be twice the background radiation level in Denver, or a sixth of the annual dose for the average American when all sources or radiation are taken into account.

  Japanese nuclear workers are limited to an accumulative exposure of 100 millisieverts over five years. Although radiation health experts assume that any incremental exposure to radiation increases risks for later cancers, the International Atomic Energy Agency say a statistically significant correlation only shows up at doses over that higher threshold.

  The Japanese government decided to allow people to move back to areas with an average annual dose of less than 20 millisieverts in December 2011.

  In an attempt to reach the tougher radiation target, thousands of temporary workers have been put to work scrubbing houses and roads, digging up topsoil and stripping trees of leaves into which invisible caesium particles have wormed.

  Few of the hundreds of companies and small firms involved have any experience with radiation. Some workers have said they have been told to flush contaminated leaves away in rivers by supervisors to speed the job up and reduce waste, since storage remains a problem.

  On a recent Saturday, a crew of 10 workers in jumpsuits, hardhats and surgical masks were clearing a roadside outside Kawauchi, picking up leaves and trimming weeds. The lower half of nearby forest slopes were stripped of saplings and shrubbery.

  " That's lovely," Yokota told a visitor. " They've got it nice and clean."

  Some experts are doubtful about the payback of that effort. First, there is a risk that radioactive isotopes can return to decontaminated areas via wind and rain. Officials in the village of Yugawa found snowfall earlier this year caused radiation levels to spike.

  At the same time, the protocols for how to complete the same job vary depending on location. For example, Fukushima city has banned the use of high-pressure water hoses for fear that they simply scatter radioactive particles rather than remove them. Other areas have allowed the hoses to be used, but filtering the collected water produces highly radioactive residue.

  " The truth of the matter is that from the European experience (after Chernobyl), remediation factors are disappointing," said David Sanderson, a professor of environmental science at the University of Glasgow and an expert in radiation who has made numerous trips to Fukushima to map the fallout.

  " And it's very expensive. I fear there's a chance the experience in Japan might be pointing to the same conclusion. Unless it succeeds in putting people back in their homes, the benefit is difficult to see."

  Tokyo has budgeted $15 billion for the effort over the past three years, but only a quarter of the $6.5 billion of that provided to the Ministry of the Environment has been spent, according to data provided to Reuters. The target is to finish the project by the end of 2016, although the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to go faster.

  NOT COMING BACK

  There is also the problem of storage. Most of the contaminated soil and leaves remain piled up in driveways and empty lots because of fierce opposition from local communities to storing it in one place until the Ministry of Environment secures a central site that could hold it for the longer term.

  Residents of Tamura, a village in the evacuated zone, were encouraged recently to begin preparing to return to their decontaminated houses - armed with Geiger counters. Some areas still show radiation at twice the target level.

  " Decontamination in the true sense of the word is not being carried out," said Tomoya Yamauchi, a professor of radiation physics at Kobe University. Yamauchi said he found that some decontaminated road surfaces in Fukushima had readings 18 times the target level because caesium had accumulated in cracks in the asphalt.

  " I think the government recognises that Fukushima cannot be returned to how it was."

  Many have given up hope of ever returning to live in the shadow of the Fukushima nuclear plant. A survey in June showed that a third of the former residents of Iitate, a lush village famed for its fresh produce before the disaster, never want to move back. Half of those said they would prefer to be compensated enough to move elsewhere in Japan to farm.

  Nuclear evacuees currently receive a living allowance from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), which is cut off when the government decides they are able to move home again.

  " I feel like some people don't want to go back because they're happy living off the compensation money from Tepco and they don't want that to end," said Hiroaki Inoue, an official from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry spending a year working at the Kawauchi village office to monitor the spending of the reconstruction budget.

  But some evacuees say it is unfair to cut off financial support when their previous homes and villages remain unliveable.

  " There's no jobs, no shops open, nothing. It's become an incredibly difficult place to live and yet they're saying â??You can go home now'," said a single mother evacuated from near Kawauchi, who declined to be named for fear of retribution from the authorities.

  " It's so unfair to say that. It's not that simple."

  In Tomioka, a coastal ghost town north of the Fukushima plant, ambient radiation remains at 10 times the government's target. Wild boar wander the streets.

  " This could be fixed," said Yokota on a recent visit. " They could get these levels right down. But the thing is, people didn't come back quickly enough. That's fatal."

  (Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Alex Richardson)

(Fixes headline)

  * Cabinet ministers, MPs pay respects at Yasukuni war dead shrine

  * Japan PM Abe sends offering, skips personal visit

  * Ties with Beijing, Seoul, strained by territorial rows, history

  * South Korean president urges Japan to face up to past

  By Antoni Slodkowski

  TOKYO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering and cabinet ministers visited a controversial shrine for war dead on Thursday - the anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War Two - prompting China to lodge a strong complaint with Tokyo and putting at risk tentative diplomatic overtures to improve ties.

  Abe was treading a fine line between trying not to inflame tensions with China and South Korea and appealing to his conservative supporters. But at least two cabinet ministers and dozens of lawmakers publicly paid their respects at Yasukuni Shrine, seen as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

  " I asked my special aide ... to make the offering on my behalf with a feeling of gratitude and respect for those who fought and gave their precious lives for their country," Abe told reporters at the prime minister's office.

  " As for when I might go to Yasukuni Shrine, or whether I will go or not, I will not say as this should not become a political or diplomatic issue," he said after his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) aide conveyed the offering in the name of " Shinzo Abe, LDP leader."

  Visits to the shrine by top politicians have outraged Beijing and Seoul in the past because the shrine honours 14 Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal, along with war dead.

  China summoned the Japanese ambassador on Thursday to protest, the foreign ministry in Beijing said. The pilgrimages to Yasukuni, it said in a statement, " seriously harm the feelings of the people in China and other Asian victim countries" .

  It denounced a visit by officials to the shrine in any form as " an intrinsic attempt to deny and beautify that history of invasion by the Japanese militarists" .

  A retired Chinese general was blunter.

  " Can you imagine what the world would think of Germany if they paid homage to Nazi boss Hitler?" retired Chinese Major General Luo Yuan, one of China's most outspoken military figures, wrote in the influential tabloid the Global Times.

  Both China and Korea suffered under Japanese rule, with parts of China occupied from 1930s and Korea colonised from 1910 to 1945.

  HONOURING THE WAR DEAD

  Japanese conservatives say it is only natural to honour the war dead and deny that doing so at Yasukuni glorifies the war.

  " Paying homage to the war dead is a purely domestic matter and it's not for other countries to criticize us or intervene in these matters, Keiji Furuya, a minister whose portfolios include the national public safety commission, said after paying his respects at the shrine in central Tokyo.

  Internal affairs minister Yoshitaka Shindo also visited the shrine as did a group of 89 lawmakers, including LDP policy chief Sanae Takaichi and aides to another 101 MPs.

  Chinese state media reported the country's military would conduct live fire drills for four days from Thursday in the East China Sea, though not close to Japan. Some Japanese media speculated this was timed to coincide with the Yasukuni visits.

  Despite close economic ties and recent calls by Abe for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japan's relations with its neighbours remain fraught because of territorial feuds and disputes over wartime history.

  " Japanese leaders should show their courageous leadership to heal wounds of the past so that both countries can develop as a true cooperative partner," South Korean President Park Geun-hye said in a speech in Seoul marking the anniversary of the end of Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the peninsula.

  Speaking later at a memorial service in Tokyo, Abe said: " We will carve out the nation's future that is full of hope, while facing history with humility and deeply engraving lessons to be learnt in our minds."

  Crowds of Japanese, including pensioners and schoolchildren, streamed through the shrine complex after it opened around dawn.

  " My father died during the war, so I come here every year to pray for him and for the people who sacrificed their lives for the country," said Mariko Matsuda, 70. " It's a great shame that Prime Minister Abe won't visit the shrine today."

  Tokyo had hoped that if Abe stayed away, it could send a signal to China of his desire to ease tensions and help pave the way for a summit aimed at repairing frayed ties.

  A dispute over rival claims to uninhabited islands in the East China Sea intensified last September after the previous Japanese government bought the isles from a Japanese citizen.

  Feuding over the islands and wartime history, combined with regional rivalry and mutual mistrust, suggest that a summit is unlikely any time soon, officials involved in behind-the-scenes talks between Beijing and Tokyo told Reuters.

  Visits to Yasukuni by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi during his 2001-2006 term sent Sino-Japanese ties into a chill.

  The deeply conservative Abe thawed relations by staying away from the shrine during his short first term as prime minister, but later said he regretted not paying his respects as premier and made a visit after becoming LDP leader last September.

  Abe's agenda of bolstering the military and easing the limits of the pacifist post-war constitution on Japan's armed forces as a prelude to revising the U.S.-drafted charter have raised concerns in China, while Japan is worried about Beijing's military build-up and its maritime ambitions. (Additional reporting by Elaine Lies, Cheng Leng and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Jane Chung in Seoul Writing by Linda Sieg Editing by Richard Pullin, John Mair and Ron Popeski)

(Updates with closing prices)
* FTSE 100 index closes 0.4 percent lower
* Encouraging UK, euro zone data limit losses
* Mining shares fall, ENRC results disappoint
* Flurry of ex-dividend shares hits index

By Atul Prakash
LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index ended
lower on Wednesday, with losses for companies going ex-dividend
offsetting the impact of positive macroeconomic data, which
lifted financial stocks.
Kazakh miner ENRC, down 2.7 percent, was among the
top fallers on the FTSE 100 after announcing a
steeper-than-expected drop in first-half profit, while global
miner Rio Tinto fell 1.8 percent after going
ex-dividend.
Other firms that traded without their latest dividend and
featured among the top decliners included AstraZeneca,
Anglo American, Pearson, Royal Dutch Shell
and Standard Chartered. Their shares fell 1.1
to 1.9 percent.
Weaker " ex-div" companies derailed a recent broader rally in
the market that could otherwise have risen after encouraging
economic data, which underpinned cyclicals such as banks and
industrials. The UK banking index rose 0.3 percent,
while Royal Bank of Scotland gained 3.5 percent.
" The concentration of companies going ex-divs today has
taken the shine off the good macroeconomic numbers coming out of
the euro zone and the UK today," James Butterfill, global equity
strategist at Coutts, said.
" There is no doubt that both the UK and the euro zone
economies are still very fragile, but recent economic numbers
have been very encouraging and should support the market going
forward. There is a greater investment case for smaller, more
domestically-focused businesses rather than big exporters."
Sentiment towards cyclical stocks improved after data showed
stronger growth in Germany and France helped the euro zone to
emerge from its longest recession in the second quarter, while a
sharp fall in UK jobless benefit claims in July pointed to a
strengthening labour market.
The FTSE 100 closed 24.51 points, or 0.4 percent, lower at
6,587.43, with volumes only 85 percent of the 90-day daily
average as a lot of traders were away from their desks in the
traditional summer holiday period.
The FTSE 100 is stuck in the middle of its recent trading
range, where support has been seen at about 6,500 and resistance
at around 6,680 - something analysts say could play out for the
rest of the month.
" It's not easy to see what's going to push the FTSE-100 out
of its latest range," Charles Stanley analyst Bill McNamara
said. " Some upside looks possible in the near term, but it's not
easy to make a case for buying it up here."

(Additional reporting by Tricia Wright Editing by Stephen
Nisbet)

* Two Exim bank debt sales fail on weak demand
* PBOC injects net 47.5 bln yuan this week
* Reverse repo rate seen stabilising money rates
* Reissuance of bills keeps liquidity jitters alive
* Benchmark market rate bucks trend to rise 12 bps

By Lu Jianxin and Pete Sweeney
SHANGHAI, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Most Chinese short-term money
rates fell on Thursday after the central bank injected cash into
the money markets, traders said, with the failure of two bond
auctions by China Export Import Bank having little impact on
short-term rates.
China Export Import Bank did not sell any 2-year or 7-year
notes as the auctions generated insuffient demand. Traders put
the auctions' failure down to the relatively low yields and
uncertainty over the central bank's monetary policy strategy.
" This is definitely the lowest coverage I've ever seen," a
bond trader told IFR, a Reuters publication. " It is the real
reflection of a really weak primary market demand."

Uncerttainty over the People's Bank of China's policy stance
has impacted sentiment in the fixed-income market.
" The PBOC's relatively tight liquidity policy has caused an
impression that bond yields could potentially rise in the near
term," said a dealer at a Chinese commercial bank in Shanghai.
" That has hurt the interests of debt buyers."
But they said that firm PBOC guidance on short-term rates,
combined with continuous cash injections, was maintaining
stability in the near term.
The PBOC injected 28 billion yuan ($4.58 billion) into the
money markets through 14-day reverse bond repurchase agreements
on Thursday, winding up this week's open market operations with
a net injection of 47.5 billion yuan.
The central bank also set the rate on its 14-day reverse
repos at 4.10 percent on Thursday, unchanged from last time, a
move that had a direct impact on the fall of the market rate for
the same tenor, traders said.
The weighted average of the 14-day repo rate
fell 7 basis points to 4.10 percent at midday while the
overnight rate tumbled 14 bps to 3.3 percent.
Rates on most other tenors also dropped.
However, traders said market sentiment remained cautious
after the PBOC announced on Monday that it had issued 75.5
billion yuan worth of three-year bills, effectively neutralising
the effect of a near-identical tranche of bills maturing that
day.
This was taken as a signal that the PBOC would keep
conditions relatively tight to discourage speculation by banks
and firms in the shadow banking market.
Such caution drove the volume-weighted average of the
benchmark seven-day forward repo contract to buck
the broader market trend and rise 12 bps to 4.0 percent on
Thursday, the high end of its normal trading range of 3-4
percent, where it has remained for most of the year.
Anticipation of higher rates going forward is reflected in
the interest-rate swap (IRS) market, where the right side of the
seven day repo curve has steepened since
mid-July. GRAPHIC: http://link.reuters.com/ryr95t

Current Prev close Change
(pct) (bps)
7-day repo 3.9975 3.8757 +12.18
7-day SHIBOR 3.9940 3.8550 +13.90
Note: Repo rate is weighted average.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

MARKET DRIVERS
- In wake of cash crunch, PBOC commits to transparency but
quietly tightens grip
- Capital outflows, slowing growth fuel monetary easing
debate
- CHINA MONEY-Tighter interbank regulation seen after cash
squeeze
- Collapse in China bond volumes exposes market's seamy side

- China reform push means June turmoil may be just the
beginning

DATA POINTS
- External liquidity tracker: Collapse in FX purchases
hurts liquidity in May http://link.reuters.com/pem75t
- Impact of maturing central bank bills and repos GRAPHIC: http://link.reuters.com/pem75t
- China's interest-rate swap curve steepens GRAPHIC: http://link.reuters.com/ryr95t
- China corporate bond spreads have narrowed slightly
GRAPHIC: http://link.reuters.com/bas95t
- Hot money tracker: Hot money inflows have returned in
2013, boosting liquidity GRAPHIC: http://link.reuters.com/saz74t


> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

TOKYO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - The Nikkei average shed 2.1 percent on Thursday, pulling back from a one-week high reached the previous day, after falls on Wall Street overnight and Japanese ministers' comments a potential corporate tax-cut soured the mood. The benchmark Nikkei ended down 297.22 points to 13,752.94, led by futures selling, while the broader Topix dropped 1.7 percent to 1,151.82. Trading volume was light. During the trading session on Thursday, Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga and Finance Minister Taro Aso both downplayed this week's report in the Nikkei business daily that the government is considering a corporate tax cut.

SYDNEY, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Australian shares are set to open lower on Thursday after Wall Street fell overnight and investors remain cautious over when the Federal Reserve might taper its stimulus measures, but a rise in metals prices may cap losses.

  Investors will also eye more earnings reports due to be released later in the day.

  * Local share price index futures fell 0.2 percent, a 48.4-point discount to the underlying S& P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark finished steady at 5,157.4 points on Wednesday.

  * New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index was flat in early trade.

  * U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, with the Dow industrials posting the worst day since late June, as investors speculated when the Federal Reserve might begin to reduce its ultra-loose monetary policy, which has helped propel stocks to record highs.

  * Copper rose as data showing a recovery in the euro zone economy and optimism about the outlook for growth in top metals consumer China boosted confidence about demand for industrial materials. Iron ore prices were hovering near five-month highs.

  * Fortescue Metals Group Ltd's attempt to avoid being forced to open its rail line to aspiring iron ore producer Brockman Mining was blocked by an Australian state regulator on Wednesday.

  * Rio Tinto Ltd said it would have to cut up to 1,700 jobs in its Mongolian operation, after a more than $5 billion underground expansion of the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine was suspended.

  * AMP Ltd posted a smaller-than-expected 10 percent fall in its half-year profit as its life insurance unit weighed down results, and said its chief executive was retiring.

  * Goodman Group Pty Ltd and Wesfarmers Ltd are due to report their earnings later on Thursday.

  ----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2216 GMT ------------

  INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S& P 500 1685.39 -0.52% -8.770 USD/JPY 97.98 -0.15% -0.150 10-YR US TSY YLD 2.7117 -- 0.000 SPOT GOLD 1335.51 0.07% 0.920 US CRUDE 106.98 0.12% 0.130 DOW JONES 15337.66 -0.73% -113.35 ASIA ADRS 142.54 -0.34% -0.49 -------------------------------------------------------------

  * Wall St falls on uncertainty about Fed's next move * Oil reaches 4-month high as Middle East tensions flair * Gold rises 1 pct on commodities rally silver up too * Copper gains on demand hopes as economies recover

  For a digest of the day's business stories in Australian newspapers, double click on

  (Australia/New Zealand bureaux +61 2 9373 1800/+64 4 471 4234)

  (Reporting by Thuy Ong Editing by Lincoln Feast)

* Fed's Bullard says wait for more data before tapering

  * Macy's shares fall after sales, earnings disappoint

  * J.C. Penney shares spike on report sales improving in Aug

  * Cisco's comment on growth outlook after close hurts tech shares

  * Indexes: Dow off 0.7 pct S& P off 0.5 pct Nasdaq off 0.4 pct

  By Angela Moon

  NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, with the Dow industrials posting the worst day since late June, as investors speculated when the Federal Reserve might begin to reduce its ultra-loose monetary policy, which has helped propel stocks to record highs.

  Trading volume has been low as the earnings season winds down and economic indicators present a mixed view, complicating predictions of the Fed's next policy action. The Fed has been buying $85 billion in bonds each month to keep interest rates low. Some analysts expect the Fed to start tapering bond purchases as early as September if data shows the economy is improving.

  Wednesday's decline accelerated in the final hour of trading after a top Fed official said the U.S. central bank, which meets again in September, should have more evidence about the economy and inflation before it can make a decision.

  " There is a growing consensus that individual data points don't really matter at this point and that the Fed has made up its mind to have completed the bond purchases by the middle of next year," said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak & Co in New York.

  Retail stocks were among the day's top decliners after Macy's Inc department store reported an unexpected decline in sales and blamed hesitation by consumers to spend on non-essential items. Shares of Macy's fell 4.5 percent to $46.33. Rival Nordstrom Inc lost 1.1 percent to $59.54.

  But shares of retailer J.C. Penney Co Inc jumped late in the session on high volume - 37 percent of trading in Penney's stock came in the last 10 minutes. The stock ended up 3.4 percent at $13.11. The New York Post said on Twitter that same-store sales are positive so far this month, citing sources.

  Apple was another stand-out as the stock extended gains for a second day, ending up 1.8 percent at $498.50 after topping $500 a share. On Tuesday, investor Carl Icahn, using Twitter, said that he has a large position in Apple. Hedge fund filings with regulators also showed that Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors took a stake in Apple.

  After the closing bell, shares of Cisco Systems Inc fell more than 9 percent to $23.97. The network equipment marker said it would cut 4,000 jobs, or 5 percent of its work force. Chief Executive John Chambers said the company aims to reduce costs and refocus on areas of growth in the face of uncertain demand for its networking equipment.

  The bleak outlook from Cisco weighed on other tech companies, like competitor Juniper Networks Inc, which fell 4 percent to $20.25 in extended trade. Hewlett-Packard fell 1.3 percent to $26.83 and Ciena lost 2.1 percent to $22.02.

  The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 113.35 points, or 0.73 percent, at 15,337.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 8.77 points, or 0.52 percent, at 1,685.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 15.17 points, or 0.41 percent, at 3,669.27.

  The S& P 500, which has fallen six out of the past eight sessions, is down about 0.4 percent so far this week but for the year is up 18 percent.

  St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said the central bank needs to gather more evidence that the economy is improving and inflation heading higher before deciding to taper its bond buying.

  In economic news, U.S. producer prices were flat in July, below expectations for a 0.3 percent increase.

  As the death toll in Egypt worsened, the Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF fell 3.3 percent to $44.61. The country's interim vice president resigned and a state of emergency was imposed following political clashes in the country.

  Volume was roughly 5.4 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, below the average daily closing volume of about 6.4 billion this year.

  On the NYSE, advancing stocks beat decliners by 2,032 to 960. On the Nasdaq, advancing stocks beat decliners by 1,441 to 1,033.

TOKYO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures rose early on Thursday, adding to the previous day's gains, when escalating violence in Egypt, concerns of supply disruptions in Libya, and a decline in U.S. petroleum stockpiles boosted the contract price.

  FUNDAMENTALS

  * NYMEX crude for September delivery was up 36 cents at $107.21 a barrel by 0011 GMT, after settling up 2 cents on Wednesday, hovering around a five-week high.

  * London Brent crude for September delivery was up 24 cents at $110.44 a barrel, after finishing 38 cents higher on Wednesday.

  * Traders are watching the situation in Egpyt, home to the Suez Canal, an important supply route for Middle East oil, after Egyptian security forces crushed the protest camps of thousands of supporters of the deposed Islamist president on Wednesday, shooting almost 200 of them dead in the bloodiest day in decades.

  * So far the canal has not been impacted by the violence, shipping sources have said.

  * Libya's crude oil output, much of which has been paralyzed for more than two weeks by labour unrest, has fallen again as new problems appeared at oilfields, the government said on Wednesday.

  * U.S. crude oil stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma fell 1.36 million barrels last week to an 17-month low, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed on Wednesday, as pipeline bottlenecks helped move larger supplies of crude to refineries that have been running at high capacity rates.

  MARKETS NEWS

  * The dollar was at a standstill on Thursday, hamstrung by uncertainty on when the Federal Reserve might start trimming its stimulus, while the euro and sterling drew support from better economic news at home.

  * Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average opened down 1.5 percent on Thursday, after overnight weakness in Wall Street soured the mood, while the summer lull is expected to limit trading.

  * The 19-commodity Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index rose 0.7 percent on Wednesday as signs of tame inflation boosted precious metals, strong Chinese data lifted industrial metals and supply disruptions fears supported oil.

  DATA/EVENTS

  * The following data is expected on Thursday: (Time in GMT)

  - 0830 U.K. Retail Sales for July

  - 1215 U.S. St. Louis Federal Reserve President Speaks

  - 1230 U.S. U.S. CPI/CORE CPI for July

  - 1230 U.S. Real Earnings for July

  - 1230 U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims

  - 1315 U.S. Industrial Production and Cap Use for July

  - 1400 U.S. Home Builders Index for August (Reporting by James Topham Editing by Richard Pullin)