U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday thanked Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for Japan's $1.5 billion pledge to help reconstruct Iraq.

In a meeting at the State Guesthouse in Tokyo, Koizumi took the opportunity to urge Bush to use the United Nations as a means to take into account other countries' concerns over Iraq.

Koizumi's comment was seen as an indirect reference against U.S. unilateralism.