The Council of Europe lamented the lack of progress...

The Council of Europe lamented the lack of progress in efforts to persuade the United States and Japan to abolish the death penalty and again warned that their observer status at the pan-European rights body was at risk.
The council's parliamentary assembly called for greater efforts to hold a dialogue with both the United States and Japan over getting rid of capital punishment, according to a statement from the 45-nation organisation.
While talks with Japan were "fruitful and ongoing," the assembly said dialogue had "largely failed with the US."
The assembly, which had asked Japan and the United States to put a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty altogether, said it was becoming increasingly difficult for the council "to accept observer states which carried out executions."
The Council of Europe claimed it was a "death penalty free zone" and said no executions had been recorded in its 45 member states since 1997.
Addressing the Council of Europe, two Japanese parliamentarians said it would be difficult for Japan to abolish the death penalty because of strong popular opinion.
Some 80 percent of Japanese people supported keeping the death penalty, according to a survey, Katsuyuki Hikasa said.
Between June 2001 and October 2003, Japan had carried out five executions, while 137 death penalties had been carried out in the United States, the assembly said.
In 2001 the assembly asked the US and Japan to take steps towards abolition or risk having their observer status called into question.
But Renate Wohlwend, a member of the assembly in charge of the issue, said it was too early to issue threats.
"We have to establish the dialogue first," she said.
But while talks had been held with Japanese parliamentarians, no members of the US Congress had taken part in a conference on the subject in Washington in April 2003, she said.