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TOKYO: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd arrived in Japan on Tuesday on a one-day visit for talks on global nuclear arms reduction, climate change and other issues.
Rudd will meet with his Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama as well as Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada later Tuesday as he makes a brief stopover on his way to UN climate change talks in Copenhagen.
His visit coincides with the release of a report from the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), set up by Rudd last year and co-sponsored by Australia and Japan.
ICNND co-chairmen Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi, both former foreign ministers of their countries, will hold a press briefing on the report.
Rudd has said he will also discuss with Hatoyama approaches to the climate summit, as well as security cooperation and economic matters.
While joining hands in a drive for arms reductions, the two nations have been at odds over Japan's "scientific whaling", which is now resuming in seas south of Australia.
Rudd last week threatened Japan with legal action if it fails to stop hunting whales.
Japan's Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada defended whaling and asked Australia to understand that the practice is part of its heritage.
Japan's whaling fleet left for its annual Southern Ocean hunt last month, using a loophole in an international moratorium that allows the creatures to be killed for research.
- AFP/yb
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