The latest talks between US and Japanese officials on realigning the US military presence in Japan have failed to produce a final agree-ment, a Japanese news report quoted the top US negotiator as saying.
Richard Lawless, US defense deputy undersecretary for Asia and Pacific affairs, said the two-day round of talks concluded with "several points remaining" to be worked out, according to a Kyodo News report.
Japanese defense agency officials confirmed only that the talks had ended, but could not immediately comment on what was discussed. US embassy officials also had no immediate comment.
The cost of relocating thousands of Marines out of Japan was believed to be the major sticking point.
The US had proposed in an earlier round of talks that Japan pay 75 percent of the estimated US$10 billion cost of moving 7,000 Marines from the southern island of Okinawa to Guam, a US territory about halfway between Japan and Hawaii.
Japan had said it would pay about a third of that amount, but on Thursday reportedly proposed paying US$3 billion of the cost plus another US$3 billion in loans.
Earlier in the day, officials expressed hope for progress.
"We are moving toward an overall agreement," Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga told a news conference before the day's talks began yesterday morning.
"Other than the cost of moving the Marines, we have no major gaps between us," he said.
The talks are part of the biggest restructuring and streamlining of the US military in Japan in decades.
An outline of the overall re-alignment plan was announced in October and was to be finalized by the end of last month, but bogged down over details.
Under a mutual security pact, the US has about 50,000 troops stationed in Japan.
The presence includes more than 10,000 Marines, several major air bases and the home port for the Seventh Fleet, the Navy's only fleet based outside the US.
The two sides have already agreed to beef up cooperation between their militaries, station a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier just south of Tokyo and significantly improve information sharing.
The decision to move most of the US Marines off the crowded island of Okinawa has been widely welcomed.
Though a major boost to the local economy, the deployment of US troops on Okinawa has generated deep concerns over crime, accidents and the use of scarce land.
However, the cost of the proposed relocation of US troops, and the fate of another airstrip on Okinawa, proved to be sticking points in the negotiations.
Recent polls suggest most Japanese believe the US should foot most if not all of the bill to move the Marines.
Moreover, the proposed relocation of some US troops to other areas of Japan has met with strong opposition.
One city in southern Japan recently held a plebiscite that strongly denounced a plan to move a carrier air wing to an existing base there.
Along with the decrease in troop numbers, concerns on Okinawa are focused primarily on the fate of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
Officials agreed a decade ago that the airfield should be moved, but have since been unable to find an acceptable plan for where it should go or how it should be built.
In a major step forward, however, the city of Nago in central Okinawa agreed last week to host the new airstrip after Japan's Defense Agency proposed moving a planned runway to keep flights away from residential areas.
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