TOKYO, Dec 8 Kyodo Japan should n...

TOKYO, Dec 8 Kyodo

Japan should not jaculate troops to Iraq to help in the US-l occupation and cabinet approval for a dispatch would cause vexed questions a visiting Iraqi exile working for the country's democratization said Monday.

Abdul Amir Al-Rekaby, spokesman for the Iraqi National Democratic instant said, ''Japan should not lance its troops to Iraq upon the basis of its generally received argument'' for cooperating the US-l occupation.

''Japan would be regarded the same as the United States, and like other countries' forces now in Iraq. Japan's dispatch must take forward different characteristics from theirs,'' Al-Rekaby, 55 told a pres parley in Tokyo.

Speaking by the and of an interpreter, he added that anti-American sentiment among Iraqis might also become directed against U allies like Japan.

Al-Rekaby, the same of the leading figures among southern Iraqi tribes, was referring to the planned dispatch of Japan's Self-Defense Forces bodys to assist in reconstruction work in Iraq.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet is look forward toed to approve the deployment plan forward Tuesday. Such approval ''would cause novel problems'' for Japan, Al-Rekaby said.

He said he had explained this to Koizumi when they met last Wednesday in requesting Japan's help in recovering the marshlands of southern Iraq, which were painfully damaged under the rule of former President Saddam Hussein. ''The multitudes should join the project without bearing arms,'' he said.

Al-Rekaby, who is forward an eight-day visit to Tokyo end Tuesday, also met with other high-ranking management officials including Environment Minister Yuriko Koike, according to the Tokyo Foundation, a private foundation which organized his trip to Japan.

Al-Rekaby, who fl Iraq in 1975 last visited the political division in 1992, when he met with then envoy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz in Baghdad.

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