U.S. President Barack Obama asked Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during their summit in Tokyo in April for the Self-Defense Forces to take a more active role in U.N.-led peacekeeping operations in Africa to help fight terrorism there, a U.S. government source said Monday.

Abe said in response that he will study the idea of dispatching more SDF troops to the region, where tensions are mounting due to the growing presence of Islamic extremists, including Boko Haram militants, the source said.

The Abe administration is trying to claim a bigger security role for Japan by expanding SDF involvement in peacekeeping operations and by attempting to lift the self-imposed ban on using collective self-defense, or coming to the aid of an ally under armed attack, the source said.