Japan to tell Obama more time needed on bases: report

Reuters

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 7:37 PM

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is to tell U.S. President Barack Obama next week he needs more time to review the relocation of a U.S. Marine base, a newspaper said on Thursday of an issue that is straining ties.

A dispute over where to put a replacement facility for Futenma air base, a key part of a realignment of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan, is one of several flashpoints in the alliance, seen as the core of security arrangements in the region.

Hatoyama said in the run-up to his party's August election victory he wanted to move the base off the southern island of Okinawa to ease the burden on local residents.

But Washington officials say they want to push ahead with a 2006 deal to move it from a crowded town to a remoter part of Okinawa by 2014 as a prerequisite to moving 8,000 Marines to the U.S. territory of Guam.

Hatoyama will tell Obama he needs more time to reach a decision but reassure Obama that Japan's ties with the United States remain the cornerstone of its foreign policy, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month urged Japan to resolve the issue before Obama arrives on November 12, on the first leg of an Asian tour. [ID:nT260851] But State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said on Wednesday the United States "had not set any kind of deadline."

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell will hold preparatory talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in Tokyo on Thursday.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Nick Macfie)