TOKYO, Jan 17 Mourners gathered in the rain before dawn on Wednesday to commemorate the 1

TOKYO, Jan 17 (Reuters) Mourners gathered in the rain before dawn on Wednesday to commemorate the 12th anniversary of a deadly earthquake that killed 6,434 people in and around the western Japanese city of Kobe.

Relatives of the victims lit candles and bowed their heads in silent prayer at 0546 hrs. (2046 GMT), marking the time when the tremor hit the heavily populated area 435 km southwest of Tokyo in 1995.

''I can't believe 12 years have passed,'' one tearful woman told NTV television in Kobe. ''I lost my mother in an instant.'' A young girl told the same television network: ''I lost my father, so I want to keep on telling people about the disaster.'' A group of shopkeepers in Nishinomiya, near Kobe, gathered to pay their respects to the dead in front of a large clock that was stopped by the magnitude 7.3 quake and has been preserved as a memorial, Kyodo news agency said.

''There have been various earthquakes and other disasters since then, so we must make efforts on an everyday basis to keep improving our disaster preparedness,'' top government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters today.

Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world, accounting for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude six or over.

In Tokyo the fire service held a demonstration of new disaster rescue equipment. Public broadcaster NHK ran features encouraging the public to take precautions against future earthquakes.

Experts advise securing heavy items of furniture to the walls or ceiling, since many of those who died in Kobe were crushed by falling furniture while they slept.

But surveys have shown that individual households' quake precautions are far from complete.

In a December survey of 200 survivors of the Kobe quake, Kyodo news agency said it found 70 per cent had not secured the furniture in their homes.

Last year the Tokyo Metropolitan government said a magnitude 7.3 earthquake under Tokyo would probably kill more than 5,600 people and injure almost 160,000. Official estimates of the likely economic damage have topped more than $1 trillion.

Fears over building safety in the event of earthquakes have also risen since a scandal surfaced just over a year ago about apartment and hotel buildings that do not conform to quake-resistance regulations.

Architectural engineer Hidetsugu Aneha was sentenced to five years in jail in December for his role in the scam.

Reuters BDP GC1038