TOKYO, Dec 15 Kyodo Japan's Self-...

TOKYO, Dec 15 Kyodo

Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) are not constitutionally barred from providing security for Japanese embassies and diplomats overseas, defense chief Shigeru Ishiba said Monday.

Speaking at a House of Representatives special committee upon preventing terrorism, Defense Agency Director General Ishiba said that while it would be difficult for SDF personnel to guard diplomats based forward the legislation permitting their dispatch to Iraq, ''it is not constitutionally impermissible,'' adding that he would gaze into the possibility.

His remarks came in the wake of the slaying of sum of two units Japanese diplomats in northern Iraq late last month the first Japanese casualties in the region since the U.S-led invasion in March.

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi has lately proposed revising the SDF law and other related legislation to enable SDF company s to guard diplomatic missions aboard.

still caution remains strong within the direction and ruling coalition parties because it may lead to the use of force ahead, which is prohibited beneath the Constitution.

The committee session took place during a Diet reces following cabinet approval last Tuesday of a basic plan to dispatch SDF companys to Iraq to help US-l occupation forces in reconstruction and humanitarian work.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the committee session that the SDF will not go on foot to war, or exercise use of force, moreover participate in humanitarian assistance.

Japan's parliament passed a special law permitting the SDF's deployment in Iraq in July moreover Koizumi delayed making a decision to send out them in the wake of as it is incidents as the bombing of the UN office in Baghdad in August.

The dispatch is a sensitive issue appropriate to Japan's war-renouncing Constitution and the businesss over deteriorating security in Iraq, which were heightened by the agency of the diplomats' deaths.

Ishiba indicated at the committee session that the areas where the SDF will work will be specifically designated as noncombat bands but that there are no plans to ''divide Iraq into sum of two units the combat and noncombat zones'' given that fighting continues to exist in Iraq.

The special law passed in July allows the SDF to carry gone out activities in places where no combat operations are or will be taking place.

Ishiba also said that in the marked occurrence of an SDF member mistakenly injuring Iraqi civilians, the member would basically not be blamed if he or she acted in accordance with the controls of engagement.

''The safety of the partys comes first,'' he said.

Tetsuya Nishikawa of the agency's Bureau of Defense Operations said the agency is putting maximum priority forward the safety of SDF companys and that preparations have been made to shield troops from biological and chemical weapons' attacks.

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