Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda entered the fray Thursday over an alleged draft of a report concluding the security situation in Iraq was safe even before an advance team had handed in its findings.

The Japanese Communist Party on Jan. 29 revealed the draft, which it claimed was written before a Ground Self-Defense Force advance team had begun its activities in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.

"It's possible to draw up such a paper during the preparatory stage. I don't think it should be a subject of debate," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a regular news conference Thursday, trying to play down the significance of the document.