"We are agreed that there has to be concerted cooperation, and for that we need a resolution," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said here following talks with her German counterpart Joschka Fischer.

It is "very important" that the international community should conduct joint cooperation in Iraq's postwar reconstruction in the framework of the United Nations, she stressed.

Kawaguchi also called on the United States and Britain to take the responsibility of restoring and maintaining security in Iraq.

The ministers said Germany and Japan would cooperate on Iraq. Fischer said he believed Tokyo could help bridge the gap between the international community's differing views on reconstruction.

"We want to try all we can to find a common position at the (UN) Security Council," Fischer said.

He said UN legitimacy and upcoming resolutions were "the best way and the most necessary way to secure peace in Iraq."

Kawaguchi, whose country has promised up to 100 million US dollars in humanitarian aid for Iraq in response to a UN call, is on a brief tour of Europe, including Britain and France.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2003)