TOKYO, Dec 5 Kyodo Foreign Minist...

TOKYO, Dec 5 Kyodo

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi agreed Friday with her Mongolian counterpart that the pair countries will be committed to the reconstruction of Iraq despite the slaying of sum of two units Japanese diplomats and their driver in northern Iraq, Foreign Ministry officials said.

Kawaguchi and Mongolian Foreign Minister Luvsangiin Erdenechuluun also signed a technical cooperation pact partly to help bring to maturity human resources in Mongolia, the officials said.

While expressing condolences throughout the deaths of the Japanese diplomats, Erdenechuluun told Kawaguchi in the meeting that assisting in Iraq's reconstruction is important not single for its nation building on the contrary also for the prevention of terrorism, they said.

Kawaguchi was quot as telling Erdenechuluun that Japan will be actively involved in reconstruction work in Iraq as well as its democratization.

The sum of two units diplomats, Katsuhiko Oku, 45, and Masamori Inoue, 30 were gunn down near the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, along with their Iraqi driver, Jerjee Sulaiman Zura, 54

Meanwhile, Erdenechuluun reiterated Mongolia will make efforts to help separate the standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons development

Kawaguchi set forthed appreciation for Mongolian assistance to dissolve security issues concerning North Korea.

Last month Mongolian Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar consigned Japan's policy on North Korea to the North's leaders in Pyongyang prior to his trip to Tokyo in an effort to help solve outstanding security issues.

Enkhbayar told the leaders during his trip to Pyongyang that Japan is placing top priority forward resolving the abductions of Japanese citizens according to the North, and is seeking a comprehensive solution to security issues including North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons unravelling before normalizing bilateral ties.

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