Japan leans toward ending Afghan refueling mission

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's defense minister said on Tuesday that Tokyo would end its refueling mission in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan when its mandate expires, but the top government spokesman said a decision had yet to be made.

The comments come a month before U.S. President Barack Obama visits Japan and following Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party taking power pledging to forge a diplomatic stance more independent of close ally Washington.

"The law will expire in January. We will solemnly withdraw based on the law," a ministry official quoted Kitazawa as telling reporters when asked about the Afghan mission.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, however, said a final decision had not been made on whether to end the nearly 8-year-old mission, which supplies fuel and water to U.S. and other ships policing the Indian Ocean for weapons and drug smugglers as well as terrorists.

"The defense minister's statement should be accepted seriously as a defense minister's statement," Hirano, who acts as the government's top spokesman, told a separate news conference.

"But as a whole, the government has not necessarily decided on it as of now."

The previous Liberal Democratic Party administration, during whose tenure the operation began, was trounced in an August election by Hatoyama's Democrats, who had opposed the mission in the past.

U.S. ambassador to Japan John Roos said this month that Washington was open to discussing alternatives.

"We would like to find out what is most expected out of Japan, including for example, job training for ex-soldiers and Taliban members so that they can they can search for a new path," Hatoyama told reporters on Tuesday.

CHAIN OF COMMAND WOES

Hatoyama's government has had trouble establishing a clear line of command concerning who articulates decisions since taking office last month on a platform that promised to put politicians, not bureaucrats, in the driver's seat on policy.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, who pledged continued support for Afghanistan reconstruction during a visit there this week, has repeatedly said that Tokyo would not "simply" extend the mission. But he has declined to elaborate on what he means.

On Monday, however, Okada told reporters in Islamabad that it would be difficult to submit a bill to extend the mission to an extra session of parliament that begins later this month, Kyodo news agency said.

Hatoyama said that Kabul did not say anything about Japan's refueling mission during Okada's visit.

"We were able to confirm that the Afghan government itself does not have very strong feelings about Japan's refueling support," he told reporters.

Defense Minister Kitazawa also said that Washington and Tokyo were unlikely to resolve a dispute over a planned rejig of U.S. troops in Japan before Obama's November 12-13 visit.

Japan plays host to about 47,000 U.S. military personnel, a large proportion of them on Okinawa, and those living near bases often complain of noise, pollution, crime and accidents.

Tokyo and Washington had agreed to reduce the burden on Okinawa by moving a U.S. Marine air base to a less crowded area and shifting up to 8,000 Marines to Guam, but Hatoyama has said he wants the base moved off the island and would review the plan.

"We will likely come short of a situation in which we see everything resolved before the visit and Prime Minister Hatoyama and President Obama reaching an agreement," Kyodo quoted Kitazawa as saying at a news conference.

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg and Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Michael Watson)