The New Tokyo International Airport Authority applied Friday for government approval of its plan to build a shorter-than-planned second runway at the airport in Narita, Chiba Prefecture.

Toru Nakamura, president of the airport operator, submitted the application to Transport Minister Jiro Kawasaki.

According to the plan, the airport authority will build a 2,180-meter runway by the end of November 2001 for use mainly by short- and medium-range aircraft, such as the Boeing 767, flying international and domestic routes.

The airport currently has one 4,000-meter runway.

The new runway is intended to go into operation in time for the 2002 World Cup soccer finals, which will be cohosted by Japan and South Korea.

"We must respond to the huge demand for the 2002 World Cup," Nakamura told reporters after filing the application. "We must complete the new runway to meet the expectation of the people."

The government's original blueprint called for a 2,500-meter second runway. But the plan was scaled back due to difficulties in purchasing the necessary land in the face of landowner opposition. The new runway will be built about 800 meters north from the originally proposed site so that land already acquired can be used.

As the provisional runway will be too short for use by jumbo jets on European and North American routes, it will be used mainly to accommodate midsize passenger planes flying to South Korea and Southeast Asia.

The ministry envisages 176 takeoffs and landings per day once the new runway comes into operation.

Two families still live in the area where the government initially planned to build the longer runway. A total of 4.8 hectares needed to complete the original plan remain in the hands of activists against the airport.

The landowners claim the government and the airport authority are trying to start construction without gaining the consensus of local residents, a power move they find unacceptable.

"The new plan indicates that the airport authority no longer needs our land," said Shoji Shimamura, a farmer opposed to the airport, adding that he has no plan to further negotiate with the authority.

However, Nakamura said the airport authority has not given up its plan to build a 2,500-meter runway, and added that it will continue to contact landowners to gain their understanding of the plan.

The Transport Ministry also plans to hold a hearing intended for local residents in October.

The ministry is expected to give its go-ahead to the shorter runway plan in November, and the airport authority hopes to launch construction before the end of the year.

Reporters on hand for Nakamura's submission of the application questioned him about longer-range plans, saying the authority could build a 3,000-meter runway to accommodate much larger planes if it could purchase the necessary land from landowners.

But Nakamura brushed aside such a plan, saying it would require additional noise suppression measures, and the authority currently has no plan to build a 3,000-meter runway.

Narita airport opened in 1978 with a single runway after years of conflict between authorities and landowners backed by leftist groups. The government had envisioned three runways in its original plan, drawn up in 1966.

In 1994, the Transport Ministry and a faction of landowners opposed to the airport expansion agreed on a plan to complete a second runway and freeze construction of a third runway.

In December 1996, the government targeted completion of the second runway by the end of fiscal 2000.

But landowners issued a statement opposing the runway construction last October and have since rejected talks with the ministry and the airport authority.