The United States plans to study the feasibility of setting up a standing secretariat jointly with Japan to discuss matters pertaining to bilateral security arrangements, according to U.S. and Japanese sources.
Observers said the plan is another indication of the importance President George W. Bush places on the alliance between the two countries.
The move could spark debate in Japan, however, as the new body could touch upon the exercising of the right to collective defense, which the Japanese government maintains is banned by the Constitution.
The proposed secretariat, chiefly comprising officials from the Pentagon and Japan's Defense Agency and Self-Defense Forces, will probably be established in Tokyo, they said.