No renegotiation on U.S. air station

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The planned transfer of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Base within Japan's Okinawa Prefecture will not be renegotiated, the U.S. government said.

The decision to transfer the air station, currently located in Ginowan, to the shores of Camp Schwab in Nago, which is also in Okinawa, was reached under a 2006 agreement.

''The United States has no intention to renegotiate the Futenma replacement facility plan or Guam relocation with the government of Japan,'' U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Monday, Kyodo News reported.

The Democratic Party of Japan, which scored a landslide victory in Japan's lower house of parliament elections Sunday, has said it would seek to relocate the air base outside Okinawa despite the 2006 accord, designed to help reduce the burden on local communities, the report said.

Another provision in the accord called for moving 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam, the report said.

Separately, Kyodo News quoted White House spokesman Robert Gibbs as saying the Japan-U.S. relationship will continue under the new government.

''We believe that we have always had a strong relationship and that that relationship will continue, regardless of what Japanese government is in power,'' he said.