Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet on Friday approved a plan to allow Japanese troops to join a UN-sanctioned multinational force in Iraq, a government spokesman said.
Japan, one of the staunchest US allies in the war on Iraq, has some 550 ground troops deployed in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa to provide post-war humanitarian assistance.
They will continue the humanitarian mission under the multinational force, which comes into effect after the handover of power to Iraqis on June 30, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said.
"Under the multinational force, the Self-Defense Forces [Japanese military] will continue their activities," Hosoda told a news conference after the Cabinet meeting.
"The Self-Defense Forces will act under the Japanese command and not participate in military activities," he said.
The UN-authorized force will be responsible for security and anti-insurgency operations in Iraq. The prospect of its involvement in combat operations is problematic for Tokyo as Japan's post-war pacifist constitution bans the use of force in settling international disputes.
Kyodo and Jiji news agencies said it would be Japan's first participation in a multinational security force, made possible because the UN resolution on the force's establishment also gave it a humanitarian and reconstruction mandate.
Koizumi has been cautious in his comments on the deployment in an apparent bid to avoid opposition charges of violating the constitution. He repeatedly said in parliament Monday the troops would operate "in cooperation with" the multinational force.
Friday's decision modified last December's Basic Plan for the dispatch of Japanese troops to Iraq, which set the term of deployment at one year.
Koizumi first announced during the Group of Eight (G8) summit in the US this month that the troops would be staying on after the transition. The president of Iraq's interim government, Ghazi Ajil al-Yawer, had called on Koizumi to keep Japanese troops in Iraq when the two met during the G8 summit in Sea Island, Koizumi told parliament on Monday.
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