Japan PM: Guam not being eyed for base

TOKYO, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama says he has not told his government to consider relocating a U.S. air base from Okinawa to Guam.

Hatoyama Friday denied an assertion by Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa that political pressure was being applied to the government by its coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party, to oppose a plan to relocate U.S. Air Station Futenma elsewhere on Okinawa and instead move it to Guam or to Kansai International Airport, The Mainichi News reported.

Kitazawa told a news conference Friday he was going to Guam "soon."

"I'd like to examine its capacity and geography as well as the conditions of the deployment of U.S. forces," he said. "Okinawa residents and the Social Democratic Party are demanding that we seek relocation out of the prefecture even if the process takes longer."

But Hatoyama said he has issued no such instructions to study a Guam relocation, the newspaper said, adding that Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told him Washington still prefers to stand by a previously agreed plan to move the base to an area near Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.