Japan and the United States will hold security talks in Tokyo on Thursday to discuss logistic support to be offered by the Self-Defense Forces for the U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan, a top Defense Agency official said Friday.

The dialogue will come on the heels of the Diet's expected passage on Monday of a bill to enable the SDF to provide such support, he said.

Senior officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Agency and the U.S. State and Defense departments are to attend the bilateral security subcommittee meeting. They are expected to set up a framework for the two governments to coordinate the SDF's logistic support for U.S. operations, the official said.

In Washington on Thursday, sources said that by mid-November, Tokyo plans to establish a basic support plan that will stipulate the geographical areas that will be covered by the SDF. It will also specify the nature of its missions, the size of the SDF units to be dispatched and the equipment to be used, they said.

During next week's discussions, Japan will outline its basic plan and hear U.S. requests, the sources said.

Peter Brookes, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, and senior military officials will meet their Japanese counterparts, they said.

Tokyo plans to send SDF ships laden with fuel and other supplies to the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, one of the bases used by U.S. bombers involved in airstrikes against Afghanistan.

The question of whether Japan should send a state-of-the-art Aegis destroyer as part of the SDF fleet has provoked controversy in Japan.

A senior official of the U.S. Defense Department voiced hope earlier this week that Japan would dispatch a destroyer with the Aegis system, which is capable of simultaneous engagement in air, surface and submarine warfare.

Japanese man not a spy

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Kyodo) Afghanistan's Taliban authorities believe the Japanese man arrested Monday near the Pakistan border is probably not on a spying mission and may release him ahead of a French journalist who has been questioned on espionage charges, a source from the regime said Thursday.

Taliban officials identified the Japanese in custody as Daigen Yanagida, believed to be a freelance journalist from Tokyo and the author of a book on a homeless shelter in Alaska.

Taliban sources said earlier that the regime may decide within the next few days on Yanagida's fate and that of three other foreigners identifying themselves as journalists, who are all being held in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

The Taliban are expected to release the detainees if they are confirmed to be journalists, the sources said.

Among the four are Frenchman Michel Peyard, 44, who is affiliated with the photo magazine Paris Match.

The sources said Yanagida was questioned by Taliban authorities for 90 minutes Thursday morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon.

Afghan Islamic Press, a news service based in Pakistan, reported Wednesday that Yanagida told Taliban authorities that he came from Mitaka, Tokyo, and entered Afghanistan via Nawa Pass in northwestern Pakistan.

Taliban officials said the man in custody was dressed in Afghan clothing when he was detained Monday in Asadabad, about 15 km from the Pakistani border, and transferred to Jalalabad on Wednesday.