Japan's ruling party backs smaller Afghan mission
Posted: 17 October 2007 1605 hrs

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TOKYO : Japan's ruling party approved a bill Wednesday to scale back support for US-led forces in Afghanistan, but the move was unlikely to placate the opposition, which wants to end the mission entirely.

Japanese vessels have refuelled coalition jets and ships under a law, which expires on November 1, allowing the officially pacifist nation to take part in the "war on terror."

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party approved a new bill to continue the mission, a party official said. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's cabinet was due to give its formal backing later in the day to send the bill to parliament.

In a compromise, the new bill would permit Japan to give oil and water only to coalition forces directly involved in the "war on terror." It follows accusations, denied by Tokyo and Washington, that Japanese fuel was diverted to US operations in Iraq.

The new bill also authorises the mission for only one year instead of two years, as originally planned.

But the opposition, which won control of parliament's less-powerful upper house in July, says that Japan should not be involved in "American wars."

Conservative Shinzo Abe resigned as prime minister last month, citing his failure to extend the mission. The opposition has also pledged to scuttle Fukuda's policy agenda until he calls early general elections.

The opposition has not officially rejected the compromise bill, saying it wants to debate the issue once the cabinet approves it.

But Kenji Yamaoka, a senior lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, attacked the new bill for eliminating a requirement that parliament approve the dispatch of every additional ship to the Indian Ocean.

"They eliminated the parliamentary approval because they don't want trouble in the upper house," Yamaoka told reporters. "It shows extreme ignorance about parliamentary debate."

The United States has warned that relations would suffer with Japan unless its close ally renews the mission.

A recent poll found that while support was only lukewarm for the naval mission, nearly two-thirds of voters wanted the opposition to compromise with the government.

- AFP /ls