Japan's defence minister chides US again: Kyodo

Tokyo, Jan 28: Japan's Defence Minister has criticised Washington's handling of the relocation of an American base in Japan in his second attack on US decision-making inside a week, Kyodo news agency said today.

Fumio Kyuma irked the Bush administration on Wednesday by saying the United States was wrong to start the war in Iraq.

Kyodo reported that his remarks on Iraq had prompted James Zumwalt, director of the Office of Japanese Affairs at the US State Department, to say that any further critical comments from Japan might make it difficult to hold the next round of Japan-US talks involving foreign and defence ministers.

The ''two plus two'' talks were last held in Washington in May.

While the two governments have reached an agreement over the relocation of a US base on the southern island of Okinawa, Kyuma said yesterday Washington did not understand the need for the cooperation of Okinawa's governor for the deal to go ahead.

''When we have to go about this by taking the governor's opinion into account, the United States doesn't understand matters around it,'' Kyodo quoted Kyuma as saying in a speech in the southwestern prefecture of Nagasaki.

''The United States doesn't understand (the importance of) spadework,'' he said.

Kyuma played down his comments on Iraq, saying on Friday they might have appeared stronger than intended in translation, but that he would be more careful about his remarks in future.

He had told a news conference on Wednesday: ''I think President Bush launched the war in a situation as if there were nuclear weapons, but I think that decision as wrong.''

REUTERS

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