HIROSHIMA, May 12 Kyodo - The number of survivors of the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing who are now living abroad and filing applications for health cards that recognize them as atomic bomb victims entitled to medical stipends surged more than sevenfold to 801 in 2003 from 112 the previous year, Hiroshima city officials said Tuesday.

The sharp increase in the number of such applicants from abroad -- including South Korea and the United States -- comes after a 2002 landmark ruling ordering the state to pay medical allowances to a South Korean survivor of the Hiroshima bombing.

However, only about 30 percent of the applicants have been issued health cards enabling them to receive medical allowances, the officials said.

The low rate of issuance, they said, is due to a number of factors including difficulties in confirming whether an applicant is an actual survivor of the bombing, and a shortage of staff.

The situation has sparked protests from atomic bomb survivors and their supporters who want the screening and confirmation process to be expedited, saying the plight of the survivors is a ''race against time'' as most are aged.

The health cards are given to individuals the government recognizes under the Atomic Bomb Victims Relief Law as suffering from atomic bomb-related diseases. The recognition is based on the survivors' accounts and testimony of a third party.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry reversed its policy of not paying the monthly allowance of about 34,000 yen to atomic bomb survivors living abroad and suffering from diseases such as disturbance of hematopoiesis and liver problems, following the Dec. 5, 2002, ruling by the Osaka High Court on a suit brought by 79-year-old survivor Kwak Kwi Hoon.

Kwak's case marked the first high court ruling that said atomic bomb survivors living abroad are eligible to receive the allowance on the same terms as those living in Japan. The state did not appeal the ruling.

According to Hiroshima city officials, there were 112 applications for preliminary screening for the whole of 2002 but following the high court ruling, the number of cases filed each month from January to March 2003 exceeded 100.

The officials said, however, that of the 972 applications from January 2002 to late March this year, only 28 percent, or 276 cases, were granted health cards.

In Nagasaki, which was also devastated by an atomic bomb dropped by the United States in 1945 in World War II, the number of overseas applications for health cards in the past was limited to a one-digit figure per month, but in April last year, the figure jumped to 127.

Hiroshima in western Japan was bombed Aug. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki in southwestern Japan was bombed three days later.

Last month, Hiroshima increased to three the number of its employees handling applications, but a senior city official said it would be difficult to do so further due to fiscal constraints.

The present system requires survivors to come to Japan and apply for the health card in person.

The health ministry estimates that a total of about 5,000 atomic bomb survivors live abroad, with about 2,100 of them in South Korea, 900 in North Korea and 1,180 in the Americas. ==Kyodo