3RD LD: Japan extends Iraq troops mission into 3rd year, eyes pullout

TOKYO, Dec. 8 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING KOIZUMI'S REMARKS IN PRESS CONFERENCE, OTHER INFO)

The Japanese government formally extended the deployment of Self-Defense Forces troops in Iraq into a third year on Thursday, with an eye to withdrawing key ground troops as early as summer 2006.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the government has decided on the extension in light of Iraq's request for the Japanese troops to continue helping its reconstruction, the U.N. decision to keep the multinational force in Iraq for another year, and Japan's interest in playing a role and building friendly ties with Iraq.

But the premier also said Tokyo will decide on a possible pullout of the troops from Iraq ''in close coordination with the British and Australian governments'' whose forces take charge of security in southern Iraq.

Protected by Australian and British forces, GSDF troops, based in the southern Iraqi city Samawah, are engaged in medical, reconstruction and other assistance activities in the region.

The Air Self-Defense Force, meanwhile, is assisting from a base in Kuwait in airlifting supplies for the multinational force in Iraq.

To extend the deployment that had been due to expire next Wednesday, the government adopted a new basic plan at a Cabinet meeting in the afternoon, saying the mission will run through Dec. 14, 2006.

But the plan allows for a pullout before the new expiration date, depending on local circumstances, including the multinational force's level of activity and changes in its composition.

Japan's opposition parties, as well as some sections of the public, are all opposed to the extension as they question the legitimacy of the Iraq War and regard the SDF presence as no longer useful to local people as Japanese troops stopped providing clean water earlier this year.

The deployment has been highly contentious from the beginning as it was Japan's first full-fledged dispatch of troops to an area of ongoing hostilities.

On the possibility that Japan will deploy its troops to other parts of Iraq or expand the ASDF operation, Koizumi said it will ''make a judgment on its own which areas and what other activities than the current ones can be done'' in the future.

Whether Tokyo will fully withdraw the SDF at the end of the new term has become an issue as a senior U.S. official suggested Tuesday that Washington may ask the SDF to engage in new duties in Iraq, possibly in areas other than southern Iraq, following similar reports.

In his meetings earlier Thursday with ruling and opposition leaders, Koizumi said the government could decide to pull the troops out of Iraq even before the mission's new deadline of December next year, doing so ''if conditions are met,'' participants said.

Koizumi told the opposition camp the government is currently not considering deploying the GSDF to other missions, but will take into account requests from the multinational force concerning the ASDF, Social Democratic Party Secretary General Seiji Mataichi said.

Tokyo has told Washington it will begin withdrawing GSDF troops from Iraq next June and complete the pullout by the end of August, following reports that British and Australian troops will start pulling out in May, government and ruling coalition sources said earlier.

But the government plans to maintain the ASDF mission even after the GSDF withdrawal from Iraq, in line with U.S. requests, according to the sources.

In determining the mission's future, the new basic plan says Tokyo will assess such factors as the multinational force's ''activity conditions and changes in their composition including the British and Australian forces in Muthana Province,'' where Samawah is located.

It will also take into account the Dec. 15 elections and subsequent political process in Iraq, local security there including the transfer of authority to Iraqi security forces, and progress in the country's reconstruction, the document says.

Having been revised once before in December last year to extend what was originally a one-year deployment, the plan again includes no changes in the specifics of the deployment, such as the dispatch of up to 600 GSDF troops to Samawah.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the New Komeito party, gave their formal go-ahead to the government plan earlier Thursday.

New Komeito party leader Takenori Kanzaki told reporters after his meeting with the premier, ''It was good that the government is taking a responsible approach to the exit policy,'' adding that the circumstances could change with the start of a pullout by Australian and British forces, possibly around March.

Under a special law on Japan's reconstruction assistance for Iraq, which was enacted in July 2003, the SDF troops have been sent to Iraq since early 2004 on condition they operate only in what are called ''noncombat zones.''

Prior to the formal decision, Koizumi had repeatedly indicated his readiness to extend the SDF's Iraq mission, most recently in a meeting Monday with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari.