Saturday, October 28, 1995 PARIS (Reuter) -- France has staged its third nuclear test in the South Pacific in defiant fulfilment of President Jacques Chirac's vow to conduct a final series of checks on its nuclear arms before ending tests forever. Reaction in Japan, Australia and New Zealand was swift and emotional Saturday in what has become almost a ritual of widespread condemnation followed by concerted French defense of its nuclear program. In Tokyo, protesters outside the French Embassy stamped on photographs of Chirac and one demonstrator solemnly cradled the carcass of a dead dove in what organizers said was a symbol of the threat French testing posed to world peace. The mayors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the only cities to suffer an atomic bombing, issued statements denouncing the blast as an "outrage." In Japan, Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama termed the test "extremely regrettable," adding that Tokyo had "repeatedly protested (against) the testing . . . and we will again demand that the testing be stopped." But Chirac says France will probably stage another three tests before it signs an international treaty, expected next year, banning all future tests and turns to computer simulations to verify the effectiveness of its nuclear weapons. The Defense Ministry said the latest test, carried out at 2200 GMT (6 p.m. EDT) Friday, was of an explosive force under 60 kilotonnes, or 60,000 tonnes of TNT. "The test was aimed at guaranteeing the future security and reliability of the (nuclear) weapons," an army spokesman said. No further details were given, apparently following a new low profile that Paris has adopted after concluding that its initial policy of openness had only encouraged testing critics. As in the case of France's two earlier tests September 5 and October 2, the strongest denunciations came from the Pacific rim nations geographically closest to the remote Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia where the test was carried out. But the latest in the series of what Chirac now says may total just six tests -- rather than the eight he announced in June -- cast perhaps its biggest shadow over France's ties with Britain. The blast dashed London's hopes that Paris might delay further tests until British Prime Minister John Major travels to New Zealand for a November 10-13 summit of Commonwealth leaders, who have threatened to isolate Britain for its hands-off stance on French testing. Worse, the test fell just before Chirac heads across the Channel Sunday for his first official visit to London since he became president in May. Britain, also a nuclear power, nonetheless again refused to join in the international criticism of Paris. "This is a matter for the French government," a spokesman for Major said. "The important thing is the work that's going on toward a comprehensive test ban treaty." New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger told Radio New Zealand he was frustrated and disappointed by the latest test. Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating said France "continues to seriously damage its international reputation by its actions in the face of world opinion." Russia added its voice to a chorus of global criticism. "The French leadership is well aware of Russia's position on this," Itar-Tass news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Grigory Karasin as saying. Karasin said Russia noted the test "with regret." Chirac's decision, disclosed just a week ago, to probably conduct only six tests and try to end them as soon as possible was widely ascribed to worldwide outrage which had taken Paris by surprise. France says the aim of the current tests is to reach the level of technical know-how to enable computer simulation of weapons tests and to test the security of weapons already in the French nuclear arsenal. The first blast in the current series of underground tests, which ended a testing moratorium imposed in 1992, took place September 5 on Mururoa atoll and had an explosive power about equal to that of the atom bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima in 1945. The second blast, which took place at nearby Fangataufa atoll on October 2, tested a warhead with the power of 110,000 tons of TNT, expected to be the most powerful blast of the series.