Japan's stricken nuclear power plant has leaked more than 600 liters of water, forcing it to briefly suspend cooling operations at a spent-fuel pond at the weekend, but none is thought to have escaped into the ocean, the plant's operator and domestic media said.

The Fukushima plant, on the coast north of Tokyo, was wrecked by a huge earthquake and tsunami in March last year, triggering the evacuation of around 80,000 people in the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Thursday called for a global approach to respond to climate risks in view of vulnerability and inability of developing nation to cope with the challenge.

A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Japan on Thursday near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, but did not cause any further problems at the power station, officials said.

The quake hit in the Pacific, 22 kilometres east of Iwaki in southern Fukushima, at 12:20 pm (0320 GMT) at a depth of nine kilometres, the US Geological Survey said. A tsunami was not expected, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, and there were no immediate reports of damage.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Northern Sumatra on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey reported, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

A tsunami warning was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and Indonesia also issued a tsunami warning but lifted it about two hours later.

It has unparalleled safety features, says technical team

The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) has come up with unparalleled safety features and it has been constructed in such a way that it shall withstand any sort of natural calamity, be it earthquake or tsunami.

A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake Monday struck the Santa Cruz islands, part of the Pacific's Solomons group, the USGS said, but there was no threat of a widespread tsunami, according to officials.

People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy has submitted an expert group report on the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project to the Central government.

Japan says it will soon require atomic reactors to be shut down after 40 years of use to improve safety following the nuclear crisis set off by last year’s tsunami.

Concern about aging reactors has been growing because the three units at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in northeastern Japan that went into meltdown following the tsunami in March were built starting in 1967. Among other reactors at least 40 years old are those at the Tsuruga and Mihama plants in central Japan, which were built starting in 1970.

Decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will take three or four decades, Japan's government said on Wednesday as it unveiled plans for the next phase of a huge and costly cleanup of t