Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday will visit East Timor, which will gain its independence on May 20, as part of a weeklong trip that will also take him to Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.
During his half-day stop in Dili, Koizumi plans to visit a Self-Defense Forces detachment stationed there as part of the U.N. peacekeeping operation in East Timor, government officials said.
They said Koizumi will meet in East Timor's capital with former guerrilla leader and President-elect Xanana Gusmao and Sergio Vieira de Mello, who is U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative to the partially U.N.-administered territory.