TOKYO, Oct 12, 2008 (AFP) - Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said a US decision to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist was 'extremely regrettable,' Japanese media reported Sunday.

'It's extremely regrettable, and I believe abductions amount to terrorist acts,' Nakagawa told Japanese reporters in Washington at the Group of Seven meeting of finance ministers.

The US State Department announced Saturday the United States had removed North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying an agreement had been reached on steps to verify Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament.

Japan has urged the US not to delist North Korea, pressing first for more information on the fate of Japanese civilians who were kidnapped by the North in the 1970s and 1980s to train the hardline regime's spies.