"The rocket was launched at 10:27 am (0127 GMT)," said Yoshihiro Nakamura, spokesman for the National Space Development Agency, minutes after the launch.

Television footage showed the H-2A rocket soaring into a clear blue sky trailing a plume of white smoke after it blasted off from the launch site on the southern island of Tanegashima some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

"It was launched successfully, and we will be able to announce the outcome of the deployment of the satellites into orbit in about two hours," Nakamura said.

The two information-gathering satellites, entirely developed by Japanese firms, are equipped with optical sensors capable of identifying objects measuring a mere one metre (yard).

The satellites are believed to match the technological sophistication of current commercial imaging satellites, but are acknowledged not to be as good as those used by the US military.

"We can use the satellites not only for gathering intelligence information but also monitoring damage from a natural disaster," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference.

"We will make the fullest use of them possible," Fukuda said.

Long under the US security umbrella during the Cold War years, Japan awoke to the need for self-reliance in defence in 1998 when North Korea test-fired a medium-range Taepodong missile over the country into the Pacific.

Hundreds of police were around the launch site and coast guard ships were patrolling waters to thwart possible terrorist attacks following the US decision to invade Iraq, which Japan has backed.

The heavy security was also in response to reports that Pyongyang, angry at what it sees as threatening re-militarisation by Tokyo, may test fire a ballistic missile around the time of the satellite launch.

Earlier this week, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency accused Japan of acting as "a shock brigade" for the launch of a US pre-emptive attack and nuclear war against North Korea by putting up the spy satellites.

But Japan defended the move.

"A number of other countries are doing it," Fukuda said, referring to spy satellites launched by major military powers, led by the United States and Russia.

"We don't aim to collect information for the purpose of attacking or an invasion," he said.

Japanese officials said there has so far been no sign of North Korea's imminent test-firing of a ballistic missile.

"We have not heard of any concrete information" related to North Korea's missile test, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said.

In Seoul, US ambassador to South Korea Thomas Hubbard warned that any provocative response by North Korea to the Japanese spy satellites would rebound on the communist state directly.

"I don't think anyone knows what the North Koreans are going to do at any given moment," Hubbard told a breakfast meeting in Seoul prior to the satellite launch.

Any provocative steps "would be a serous mistake on the part of the North Korea," the ambassador said. "We think such steps would lead to further isolation of North Korea. It certainly would not contribute to their people's security or economic well-being."

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