A group acting on behalf of surviving victims of Aum Shinrikyo's nerve gas attacks petitioned the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on Friday, asking it to expand medical aid programs so that they cover all sufferers.

The petition was submitted a day before the ninth anniversary of the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system.

Survivors, medical experts and the nonprofit organization Recovery Support Center, which has conducted annual medical checks on sarin victims, want the ministry to provide more publicity for its aftercare program among those who currently receive workers' accident insurance and who are suffering aftereffects as a result of exposure to the nerve gas.

Under the government's aftercare scheme, which was introduced in 1997, sarin attack survivors are eligible for free medical services if they are found to be suffering aftereffects.

Health ministry officials said, however, that only 12 people have thus far been certified to receive the service.

There has been no public medical assistance for the survivors of Aum's sarin attacks in 1994 and 1995 other than public medical insurance for injured workers.

Out of some 6,000 victims, 3,700 have benefited from this insurance.

Ministry officials said it has notified most of the 3,700 by mail about the aftercare service.

In a news conference held after the petition was submitted, sarin survivors said that public medical aid should be also given to those who could not obtain worker's accident insurance because they had no full-time jobs at the time of the attacks.