Japan says its Iraq base safe as poll shows opposition to deployment

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan says its troops in southern Iraq are still in a non-combat zone -- a prerequisite for their deployment -- as a poll shows most Japanese oppose extending their mission beyond next month.
A day after Prime Minister Iyad Allawi announced a 60-day state of emergency in most of Iraq, Japan said the security situation around its base of Samawa still met the requirements of its constitution which bans the use of force.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters the government's definition that the southern Iraqi city is a non-combat area "has not changed".
He described the intensifying combat, such as a major offensive by US and Iraqi forces against rebel-held Fallujah, as a battle over January elections.
"This is a fight between the Iraqi government which wants to realize January elections and the terrorists who want to disrupt them," Koizumi said.
A new debate on the troop deployment has been stirred by the beheading last month of a Japanese hostage after Koizumi rejected demands to withdraw troops from Iraq. Two shells have landed at Samawa camp without causing injuries.
"We will take adequate care to ensure absolute safety going forward," said the top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda.
Around 550 Japanese troops are in Samawa on a non-combat humanitarian mission that is Japan's first military deployment since World War II to a country where there is active fighting.
The mission expires on December 14 unless the government extends it.
On Sunday Koizumi told a military parade that Japanese troops must "positively contribute to the peace and stability of the international community", in what was seen as the latest sign he will extend the deployment.
But a poll by the Mainichi Shimbun published Monday found 51 percent oppose keeping soldiers in Iraq past next month when their one-year mission expires, nearly double the 27 percent in favor.
Twenty-four percent said Koizumi should have withdrawn troops from Iraq to save the life of abducted backpacker Shosei Koda, although 57 percent said the prime minister was right to refuse the al-Qaeda-linked kidnappers' demand.
Support for the Koizumi cabinet stood at 45 percent, hardly changed from 46 percent in an October poll, with his disapproval rating edging down to 36 percent from 38 percent, the daily said.
The Japanese force in Samawa is under the protection of some 1,300 Dutch troops, who in turn are under British command in southern Muthanna province.
The director general of Japan's Defense Agency, Yoshinori Ono, met Monday with Dutch ambassador Egbert Jacobs and thanked the Netherlands, telling him Tokyo had not yet decided whether to extend the troop mission.
Jacobs told him Iraq's south is "relatively stable compared with other areas, but recently there has been a need to be careful about the security situation," according to a Defense Agency spokesman.
Dutch troops are scheduled to pull out of Iraq on March 15 next year, but Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot said last week "unforeseen circumstances" could lead the government to review or extend the mission.

11/08/2004 - 08:12 GMT - AFP