Kyodo news summary -4-

TOKYO, April 18 Kyodo

---------- Fukuda, Yang agree to ensure success in Hu's visit to Japan in May

TOKYO - Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi agreed Friday that the two countries will work together to ensure success in a visit to Japan by Chinese President Hu Jintao in May, according to Yang.

During a meeting at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Yang said he thanked Fukuda for expressing Japan's support to a successful hosting by China of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August.

---------- Gov't sees no need to clarify concept of 'noncombat zone'

TOKYO - Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura on Friday dismissed the need to clarify the government's notion of ''noncombat zones'' where deployments of Japan's Self-Defense Forces are allowed under the war-renouncing Constitution, saying, ''There is no plan to do so.''

The comments came a day after a Japanese court issued a landmark ruling which determined that the Air Self-Defense Force's mission to airlift armed troops from multinational forces to Baghdad is unconstitutional because the area is a ''combat zone.''

---------- Cluster bomb victim urges Japan to join move for total ban

TOKYO - A cluster bomb victim from Serbia urged the Japanese government on Friday to join an international bid to totally ban cluster bombs.

Branislav Kapetanovic, 42, told Vice Defense Minister Kohei Masuda, ''I truly hope that the government, parliament and the people of Japan will work together and stand up for a total ban on cluster bombs.''

---------- Jailed Chinese rights activist has lost chance of appeal: lawyer

BEIJING - A lawyer representing one of China's most prominent civil rights activists said Friday it is now impossible for his client to appeal against his three-and-a-half year jail sentence for subversion.

Lawyer Li Fangping said detention center authorities stopped him from seeing or contacting Hu Jia on Monday, the final deadline for the rights activist to contest the ruling.

---------- Ruling, opposition parties launch negotiations over road tax

TOKYO - The ruling and opposition parties launched negotiations Friday to free up road-related tax revenues for general expenditures under a panel of senior members, in an effort to reach a breakthrough in the road tax row amid the divided Diet, lawmakers said.

But tough negotiations are expected, given that the ruling parties and the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan remain at odds over when to start freeing up the tax revenues and over gasoline and other road-related tax surcharges which expired in March due to resistance by the opposition parties.

---------- Taiwan president-elect mulls presidential office move

TAIPEI - Taiwan's president-elect Ma Ying-jeou is considering moving the island's presidential office after he is inaugurated next month to shake off the lingering legacy of Japanese colonial rule, local media reported Friday.

Located in Taipei, the Office of the President housed the Japanese governor-general when the island was ruled by Japan from 1895 to 1945.

---------- Aegis destroyer Atago leaves Yokosuka for home port after collision

YOKOSUKA, Japan - The Aegis destroyer Atago left the Maritime Self-Defense Force base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Friday for its home port in Maizuru on the coast of the Sea of Japan, after being docked in Yokosuka since a collision with a trawler in the Pacific in February.

The 7,750-ton destroyer plans to arrive in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, on Tuesday for the first time in six months as the Japan Coast Guard, which is investigating the accident, has allowed the destroyer to depart from Yokosuka, officials of the Defense Ministry's Maritime Staff Office said.

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