Senior officials from all the government's ministries and agencies met Saturday to renew their resolve to cooperate closely with each other and support the United States following Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, government officials said.
"We discussed measures in detail," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Teijiro Furukawa told reporters after the meeting.
Foreign Ministry officials explained to the meeting's participants the government's efforts to confirm the whereabouts of 24 Japanese missing since the attacks, they said.
Some of the participants said the government should provide counseling for relatives of the missing Japanese. Others said Japan should provide more security to U.S.-related facilities in Japan, they said.
The participants agreed to pursue a six-point policy to deal with the attacks, including a pledge to work to prevent the incident from triggering worldwide economic confusion, adopted at Wednesday's meeting of the Security Council of Japan, a top-level security meeting headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
On Saturday, officials of a task force set up at the prime minister's official residence briefed Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani on the situation.
Nakatani later told reporters, "Nations have been pondering their responses to a very tense situation. Japan must analyze their moves and deal with the issues."
The U.S. has threatened to retaliate and is accusing the Taliban government in Afghanistan of sheltering Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who is suspected of involvement in the attacks.