Japan, Australia hold security talks

JAPAN: Japan and Australia were to hold talks in Tokyo Wednesday on stepping up military and diplomatic cooperation, despite a dispute between the Pacific allies over Japanese whaling.

Japan's Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa were to meet their Australian counterparts Stephen Smith and John Faulkner in the late afternoon.

Tokyo and Canberra are working on an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, under which their armed forces would provide each other with food, fuel and logistical support during peacekeeping and disaster-relief missions.

It is the third such meeting by the foreign and defence ministers of Japan and Australia since the nations signed a security pact in March 2007, and the first under the government of Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

The pact was the first for officially pacifist Japan outside its military alliance with the United States.

In December 2008, Japan and Australia agreed to share confidential information, pledged to expand joint military exercises and to set up regular consultations on disaster prevention, fighting terrorism and peacekeeping.

They have been taking steps to expand a security alliance despite a row over Japan's Antarctic whaling, which is widely opposed in Australia. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has threatened to take Japan to an international court unless it commits this year to end the practice there. Tokyo, Friday, AFP