Talks between Prime Minister Naoto Kan and U.S. President Barack Obama are being arranged to take place next month in New York, a Japanese government source said Saturday.
Kan and Obama, who held their first bilateral summit in June in Canada, are expected to discuss outstanding issues including the planned relocation of the U.S. Futenma base within Okinawa Prefecture.
The Japanese and U.S. governments are making arrangements for their second bilateral talks on the occasion of a U.N. General Assembly session scheduled for late September.
Kan is believed to have conveyed his wish to meet Obama on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting when he met with U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos in Tokyo on Friday night, according to sources.
If their New York meeting is realized, the two leaders are also likely to discuss a range of other topics, such as North Korea's nuclear development program and past abductions of Japanese nationals, economic measures based on the situations in Japan and the United States, and efforts to combat global warming.
On the Futenma issue, the Japanese and U.S. governments are arranging to work out a report to be released by working-level experts by the end of this month that is expected to incorporate two plans for the relocation facility — two runways in a V-shaped formation and a single runway.
But Kan's government plans to put off a final decision on the issue until after the Okinawa gubernatorial poll slated for November, and a focal point of the summit talks may be on whether Obama would express understanding for this plan.