The European Union and Japan should work together more closely on common international agendas, such as securing peace in the Middle East and reconstructing Afghanistan, to keep the the United States from taking a unilateral approach, EU Ambassador to Japan Ove Juul Jorgensen said Wednesday.

In a farewell news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, Juul Jorgensen said that EU-Japan ties have dramatically changed from economic competition to strong partnership in both the economic and political fields in his four years in Japan as the world has become more interdependent.

"The EU and Japan have a shared responsibility to promote multilateralism," the ambassador said, referring to many actions on the part of Washington that have been viewed as unilateral moves, such as walking away from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and the new International Criminal Court.

The EU, whose member states have already ratified the Rome treaty that established the world's first permanent war crime tribunal on July 1, is "concerned" about the sudden U.S. decision to back out from joining the ICC on the eve of its creation, explained Juul Jorgensen, who is to leave Japan soon.

The establishment of the ICC "represents maybe one of the greatest steps in building a strong international rules-based system since the formation of the U.N.," he said adding that Japan should also swiftly ratify the treaty as it did with the Kyoto Protocol, even without the participation of the United States.

"We have had a good experience in working together with Japan on the Kyoto Protocol," he said. "I hope that the experience we gained in the Kyoto Protocol will repeat itself."

Juul Jorgensen, a Danish career diplomat, also said the EU and Japan should work more closely together to engage North Korea in the international community.

He pointed to training projects undertaken by the EU, which invite North Korean officials to Europe to see how modern bureaucracy works, as an example of its engagement efforts.