Japan should revise the five principles under which the Self-Defense Forces can participate in international peacekeeping operations, a senior member of the Liberal Democratic Party said Thursday.

"So long as the so-called five principles remain intact, it will be very difficult for Japan to conduct actual (peacekeeping) activities," said Koichi Kato, a former LDP secretary general and a candidate in the LDP's presidential election.

Responding to questions after a speech in Tokyo, Kato argued that if a United Nations peacekeeping force is organized to stabilize the situation in East Timor, the SDF would not be allowed to participate. This, he said, is because the mission would conflict with the principle of neutrality, as it would be designed to protect those advocating independence.

Although it has been endorsed by the Security Council, the multinational force currently being mulled for the violence-ravaged territory will not be U.N.-led.

Since an overwhelming majority of East Timorese voted for independence earlier this month, militias thought to be backed by Indonesia's military have gone on a killing spree. Reports say thousands have been killed in the capitol of Dili alone while tens of thousands more have been forcibly removed from the province.

Although the LDP and New Komeito have already agreed to "defreeze" an article of the 1992 PKO law so that the SDF can participate in the main activities of a U.N.-led peacekeeping force, Kato said this alone would not be enough to dispatch the SDF to East Timor.

The five prerequisites, he noted, would still exist.

They are:

1) establishment of a ceasefire agreement;

2) acceptance of U.N peacekeeping operations by both warring parties;

3) neutrality of the U.N. operation;

4) ability of Japan to immediately withdraw troops if necessary;

5) equipping of the SDF only with the minimum necessary weapons.

Sending SDF personnel overseas is a politically sensitive issue between conservative and pacifist parties; the five principles were established as a political compromise when the PKO law was enacted in 1992.