LEAD: Rice, Machimura to hold talks Monday in Washington

Japan Policy & Politics, May 2, 2005

WASHINGTON, April 27 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFORMATION)

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura are set to hold talks Monday in Washington, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The hastily arranged meeting is aimed at reaffirming and highlighting the bilateral alliance due to growing uncertainties such as the stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions and the tensions between China and Japan over recent anti-Japan rallies in China.

The meeting had been believed to be unlikely even though Machimura is scheduled to visit New York later this week to early next week to take part in the opening session of an international conference from Monday to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

While Rice is now visiting Latin America and will not attend the NPT session due to her tight schedule, Machimura was to focus his five-day stay in New York on convincing other nations to support Japan's bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

But Machimura will move to Washington from New York on Sunday evening for the talks with Rice on Monday morning. He will then return to New York to deliver a speech at the NPT review conference in the afternoon before departing for France to attend a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

During his talks with Rice, Machimura is expected to brief her about Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao last Saturday in Jakarta.

Machimura is likely to ask for further U.S. efforts to realize reforms of the U.N. Security Council as the United States supports Japan becoming a permanent member.

The talks are also expected to highlight the issue of Japan's 16-month-old import ban on American beef.