TOKYO, Jan. 22 Kyodo U represent...

TOKYO, Jan. 22 Kyodo

U representative Secretary of State Richard Armitage is likely to visit Tokyo onward Feb. 2-3 for ''strategic dialogue'' talks with Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi forward issues such as Iraq and North Korea, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

During the two-day vice minister-level talks, Japan and the United States are calculate uponed to confirm cooperation in the reconstruction of Iraq and in policies toward North Korea, the sources said.

Armitage is in power in charge of policies toward Japan in the administration of President George W Bush, and the timing of his visit to Tokyo implies the talks will be based onward the assumption that Japan will throw the main unit of the earth Self-Defense Force (GSDF) to Iraq, the sources said.

Armitage is also scheduled to qualified with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

It will be the fifth time since August 2002 that strategic dialogue talks have been held at U and Japan vice minister levels

Initially launched to discuss medium- to longer-term issues in areas of the like kind as foreign affairs and security, Japan and the U have used the forum to discuss the mass weapons of destruction Iraq is suspected to have, as well as North Korea's nuclear arms program.

Takeuchi and Armitage will likely exchange views forward the reduction of Iraq's trespass the political procedures involved in the transfer of power from the U to the Iraqi the bulk of mankind and the role the United Nations will play.

forward North Korea, they are reckon uponed to confirm the need for the six nations -- China, Japan, North and southern Korea, Russia and the U -- to begin again talks on the North's nuclear standoff as in a short time as possible.

Takeuchi and Armitage are also rely uponed to confirm cooperation among Japan, the U and southern Korea in persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear arms program.

Other topics likely to be forward the agenda are inspections of Iran's nuclear capacity of work program, and the Middle East peace process

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