Defense Agency chief Hosei Norota expressed hope Friday that the site to relocate U.S. Marine Corps helicopter operations at Futenma Air Station in Okinawa will be selected by the end of the year.

"Personally, I hope the question is settled by the end of the year," Norota told a news conference after the day's regular Cabinet meeting.

At the same time, Norota said the government will not push for a decision without consent of local authorities, adding that he wants Okinawa's project team on the issue to come to a conclusion as soon as possible.

Norota also said relocation of the Futenma airfield and Okinawa's hosting of the 2000 Group of Eight summit "are totally unrelated," dismissing recent comments by U.S. officials that Washington wants to see the Futenma issue settled before President Bill Clinton visits Okinawa for the G8 summit.

On Thursday, a U.S. official in Tokyo told reporters that Washington wants to see progress on the Futenma relocation before the summit.

"In the months leading to the G8 summit, we would like to make as much progress as possible on the initiatives proposed in the SACO final report, particularly the identification of the replacement site for the Marine Corps' air station in Futenma," the official, who asked not to be named, told Japanese reporters in Tokyo.

The U.S. agreed in the 1996 bilateral Special Action Committee on Okinawa to return the Futenma base to Japan in five to seven years on condition that the base's heliport functions are relocated. The return of the facility is part of a plan to consolidate the U.S. military presence in Okinawa.

Tokyo plan to build an offshore heliport in Okinawa as a substitute facility had been stalled due to strong opposition by local residents and former Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota.

But Ota was defeated in November's election by Keiichi Inamine, who has proposed building an airport in the northern part of Okinawa to be used for both military and commercial purposes.

The official said the U.S. "sees no linkage between the SACO process and the G8 summit and we set no deadline on the issue."

On the other hand, he said, "We believe that there are new and better developments on Okinawa now and wish to move forward with these important SACO initiatives," as the G8 is a good opportunity to highlight the bilateral relationship.

The official also said the U.S. is working with Japan to identify a backup site for the Iejima airfield in northern Okinawa, to where parachute drills are scheduled to be moved from Yomitan airfield in central Okinawa by March 2001 under the SACO agreement.

Preparations for the relocation are deadlocked, and it is unclear when or where the exercises will resume, due to opposition from the U.S. military for safety reasons.

The U.S. official acknowledged the two countries are still discussing the issue, noting the site has yet to be decided and they are looking into all possible sites in Japan.