Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi agreed Friday with US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on cooperation for the establishment of a democratic government in Iraq.  

"We agreed on cooperation for the establishment of a democratic government for Iraq's stability," Koizumi said at a press conference after meeting with Rumsfeld, who arrived in Tokyo earlier in the day.

It was Rumsfeld's first visit to Tokyo since becoming defense secretary in January 2001.

Koizumi said Rumsfeld mentioned no specific timing for Japan's envisaged dispatch of Self-Defense Forces troops to Iraq to assist in reconstruction work there.

The US defense secretary's trip is seen as an apparent gesture to press Japan to commit troops to postwar Iraq following Japan's decision Thursday to abandon a plan to send the SDF by the end of this year amid mounting concern about deteriorating security in Iraq.

International organizations, including the United Nations, and some countries participating in the reconstruction, have decided to withdraw from Iraq due to the deteriorating security situation there.

Koizumi said he told Rumsfeld that Japan will promote cooperation for the reconstruction of Iraq by watching the condition of the country.

On Thursday, Japan decided to overhaul its strategy on Iraq reconstruction, including the planned SDF dispatch by the end of this year.

Japan had planned to send the troops to southern Iraq, but decided to review the plan after Wednesday's suicide truck bombing at a base for Italian forces in the southern city of Nasiriyah.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said earlier today that Japan will do whatever it should to help rebuild Iraq.

The country's Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said separately that Japan plans to tell the US defense secretary it will examine the security situation in Iraq and decide what to do on its own.

Ishiba said Japan will soon send a team of about 10 SDF experts to Iraq to examine whether the Japanese troops can still protect themselves, and that he expects the United States to understand Japan's stand.

In Washington, US officials said Thursday the United States understands Japan's decision to give up plans to send SDF troops to Iraq by the end of this year but anticipates that Japan will eventually dispatch them to help with Iraq's reconstruction.

"Japan has said it wants to think about the timing of that. We understand that," US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was quoted by Kyodo News.

Wednesday's truck bombing also prompted South Korea to order its troops operating in southern Iraq to halt all activities until security in the region is fully guaranteed. South Korea has sent about 450 non-combat troops to Nasiriyah.

That decision came days after South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun told his national security staff to limit the level of additional troops to Iraq to under 3,000, a level drastically lower than what the United States has requested.

The Japanese defense minister also said he expects to talk with Rumsfeld about how the two countries should review the bilateral security alliance in light of new threats posed by the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The United States is planning to begin talks shortly with Japan and South Korea on drastically realigning US troops in the two countries, Kyodo quoted Rumsfeld who made the remarks Thursday en route from Washington to Guam before arriving in Tokyo.

Rumsfeld will meet Saturday with Kawaguchi and Ishiba to discuss the situation in Iraq as well as the Japan-United States security alliance and realignment of US troops in Japan.

He will visit Okinawa, where most US bases in Japan are located, on Sunday before leaving the same day for South Korea.

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2003)