Japan will send its senior vice foreign minister as a special envoy to Baghdad as part of a last-ditch diplomatic effort to get Iraq to give up its weapons of mass destruction program, government leaders said Wednesday.
"We plan to urge Iraq to cooperate with the United Nations inspectors so that it can avoid a war," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said.
Toshimitsu Motegi will leave for Baghdad over the weekend, government officials said, adding that he will also travel to Jordan.