Japan may end air force mission in Iraq

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Thursday it may end an air force mission that flies supplies into Iraq in support of U.S.-led forces, despite a plea from Washington for the Japanese to stay on.

The government is considering halting the mission and withdrawing roughly 210 air force personnel from their base in Kuwait by the end of the year, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told reporters, ending Japanese military involvement in Iraq.

"The purpose, which was to rehabilitate Iraq, is about to be achieved, and the security situation is getting better," Komura said.

News of Japan's possible withdrawal came days after a senior American official said the number of U.S. allies involved in the Iraq war would be reduced to a handful before the end of the year.

Parliamentary permission for Japan's Iraqi mission runs out next year, and the Japanese government has had trouble getting such overseas military missions extended in the face of an upper house controlled by opposition parties.

Japanese media say the ruling coalition's junior partner, the Buddhist-backed New Komeito party, has advocated ending the operation.

Defence Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said he would concentrate his efforts on extending a marine refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan, parliamentary permission for which expires in January.

"I want to tell the public about the importance of this mission, and do everything I can to continue it," Hayashi told reporters.

Washington's ambassador to Tokyo urged Japan in July to continue both the Iraqi and Afghan missions but they are controversial in Japan, which has developed a strong pacifist tradition since World War Two.

People opposed to the Iraq mission won a non-binding court ruling in April that the operation breached Japan's constitution, but the view was dismissed by government and military officials.

The opposition parties last year forced a three month break in the Indian Ocean mission that supplies free fuel to the U.S. navy and its allies, until the government forced renewal legislation through parliament.

Passing a further extension could be even more difficult, as the government's large majority in parliament's lower house, which allows it to overrule the upper chamber, is likely to be cut in an election expected by media to be held in November.

Japan began the air force flights in 2004 and also had around 600 ground troops in southern Iraq until it withdrew them in 2006.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo declined to comment on Japan's review of its air force mission.

President George W. Bush said this week he planned to cut U.S. troop levels modestly, pulling 8,000 troops out by February, saying this was made possible by a drop in violence.

(Additional reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Rodney Joyce)