Diet business reopened Thursday after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi retracted an earlier remark about the security situation in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.
But deliberations at a special House of Representatives committee on Iraq issues were stalled again later in the day when Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba was grilled over an inaccuracy in his statement about the activities of an advance Ground Self-Defense Force team in Samawah.
Ishiba previously told the Diet that members of the advance team met with the chairman of Samawah's city council to gather information on local security on Jan. 20.