A method and apparatus for decoding a coded data stream of bits using an inner decoder, deinterleaver and an outer decoder. The outer decoder first decodes by error correction decoding for r errors per word. The decoding is terminated and a decoded word is outputted if the syndromes of the corrected word of the first decoding are all zeros. If the syndromes of the corrected word of the first decoding are not all zeros, a second decoding is performed by error decoding and erasure for the number of errors reduced by one and the number of erasures increased to two. The decoding is terminated and a decoded word is outputted if the syndromes of the corrected word of the second decoding are all zeros. If the syndromes of the corrected word of the second decoding are not all zeros, the second decoding by correcting and erasure decoding is repeated for the number of errors reduced by one and the number of erasures increased by two for each iteration of the second decoding.
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