Despite the recent fatal ambush of two Japanese diplomats in Iraq, Japan should send Self-Defense Forces troops to the country to help speed up its reconstruction, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Thursday.

"Time is important in the reconstruction of (Iraq), as Mr. Oku once told me," Kawaguchi said in an interview with The Japan Times, referring to Katsuhiko Oku, one of the victims of the attack.

Supporting Iraq's reconstruction will help stabilize the security situation, Kawaguchi noted, adding that they are "two sides of the same coin."

The foreign minister also claimed that dispatching troops would serve Japan's interests, since 86 percent of its oil comes from the Middle East.

"If terrorists throw their weight about in Iraq, the Middle East and the rest of the world will become unstable," Kawaguchi said.

She further stressed that public order in Iraq would not be restored merely by offering financial assistance.

"We have to send (Japanese) people to the frontline and carry things forward to promote assistance," she said. "Mr. Oku and Mr. (Masamori) Inoue did their best and died on duty."

As for revising the SDF Law to send troops to guard the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad, Kawaguchi expressed her intention to start detailed deliberations within the ministry to ensure the safety of its staff there.

Separately, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker said a Japanese troop dispatch would have political significance in emphasizing the unity of the U.S.-led coalition's effort to fight terrorism.

Such a troop dispatch would have "an enormous symbolic effect as well as practical," Howard said in a lecture at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.

"It means the coalition against terrorism is extended to the full participation of the second-largest economy of the world."

Although Baker said it is up to Japan to decide, he added that he personally believes an SDF dispatch is a "good way to begin."