Japan PM Won't cling to job if Afghan mission ends

SYDNEY, Sep 9 (Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said today he would not cling to his job if he cannot extend a Japanese naval mission in support of US-led operations in Afghanistan, vital to Tokyo's ties with Washington.

Opposition parties, which won control of the upper house of parliament in a July election, can delay enactment of a bill to extend the mission beyond its Nov 1 expiry.

Abe said he would do all he could to extend the mission but indicated that he could resign if the mission to refuel coalition ships were to end.

''I have no intention of sticking to my duties (as prime minister),'' Abe told a news conference in Sydney, where he attended an Asia-Pacific leaders conference.

Financial markets have been rattled with worries over political stability following a slew of scandals in Abe's cabinet, and the bill to extend the Afghan mission has become the prime focus of a session of parliament starting tomorrow.

Earlier on Sunday, Tadamori Oshima, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker in charge of parliamentary affairs, told broadcaster NHK that the ruling camp was considering submitting a new bill to extend the law in a bid to win the support of the main opposition Democratic Party.

But Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa has said he opposes the refueling operation itself because the US-led operations in Afghanistan do not have the direct imprimatur of the United Nations.

Abe told US President George W Bush on Saturday on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum that he would do his utmost to have the Afghan mission continue.

One option for the government is to submit a new bill on the naval mission.

Bills rejected by the upper house can be returned to the lower house and enacted there by the ruling camp's two-thirds majority in the chamber, but this rarely used process takes time.

Policy experts say an end to the Japanese mission could hurt Japan's security ties with the United States at a time when it is trying to counterbalance China's growing dominance in the region and fend off North Korea's nuclear threat.

Restricted by its pacifist constitution, Japan has spent years in lockstep with US defence policy in return for the shelter of Washington's ''nuclear umbrella''.

Abe has sought to propel Japan further out of its post-World War Two pacifist shell since he took office last September. But in a recent public opinion poll, 53 per cent of respondents were against extending the Afghan mission, while 35 per cent supported it.

REUTERS PD PM1618