Japan, US to seek solution to Okinawa base row
Posted: 17 November 2009 0043 hrs

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TOKYO : Japan and the United States will hold talks here on Tuesday to seek ways to solve a sticking row over the relocation of a US military base on the island of Okinawa, the foreign ministry said.

Japan will be represented at the meeting by Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and their deputies, the ministry said in a statement Monday.

They will sit down with US ambassador John Roos, Wallace Gregson, the assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific security affairs, and other US officials.

At the centre of the row is the US Marine Corps air station in Futenma which has inhibited urban development on the southern Japanese island.

The two-month-old Japanese government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has agitated Washington by saying he is reviewing a 2006 accord to close the base and build a replacement facility in a less populated but scenic seaside area.

Many islanders have demanded that the base be relocated outside their prefecture.

Hatoyama has maintained that Japan may push to move the base off the island, perhaps even out of the country, to lighten the burden on Okinawa which hosts more than half of the 47,000 US troops based in Japan.

The base issue remained unresolved when Barack Obama visited Tokyo last week as part of his maiden Asian swing as US president.

After meeting Hatoyama here on Friday, Obama said he wanted both sides to "expeditiously" settle the row about the base relocation while he emphasised the importance of a solid US-Japan alliance.

- AFP /ls