Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday told U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Japan supports U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq, but also hinted no Japanese troops will be dispatched to the country this year.
The government had earlier planned to send Self-Defense Forces by year's end, but the bombing of an Italian military base in the southern part of the country earlier this week has made that politically impossible.
Referring to the planned dispatch, Koizumi told Rumsfeld "the situation is (now too) severe."