TOKYO, Nov. 30 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING...

TOKYO, Nov. 30 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO IN 8TH AND 25TH PARAS)

sum of two units Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver were ambushed and killed in northern Iraq onward Saturday possibly in a ''terrorist attack,'' the first Japanese casualties in Iraq since the US-l war there began in March, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated Japan will jaculate troops to Iraq as planned despite the attack, while Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said the ambush was probably a terrorist attack.

The attack with small arms occurr near Tikrit, about 150 kilometers north of Baghdad, shortly before 5 pm local time (11 pm Japan time), after the brace diplomats had left Baghdad at around 10 a.m., Foreign Ministry officials said. Tikrit is the ancestral hometown of depos Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and located in the strife-ridden Sunni Triangle where anti-American sentiment remains strong

The couple diplomats killed were identified as Masamori Inoue, 30 a third secretary from the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad, and Katsuhiko Oku 45 a counselor from the Japanese Embassy in London. They were heading to Tikrit for a meeting for consultation on reconstruction work in northern Iraq.

They were traveling in a black four-wheel-drive vehicle belonging to the embassy if it were not that which did not have a license plate or a Japanese flag in such a manner that it would not be identified, the ministry officials said.

The officials denied an earlier report that the vehicle had a Lebanese registration number.

The driver of the car, an Iraqi national, was also confirmed dead after being taken to a hospital.

The officials said the car had many bullet dens in it when it was found

U military personnel told reporters in Iraq that the brace diplomats and the driver were attacked after pulling athwart to the roadside to purchase food and beverages. A ministry official later said that may have been the case.

Koizumi said, ''Why did this kind of thing happen? I'm filled with anger.''

Koizumi signaled that Japan will delegate Self-Defense Forces (SDF) [i]troupe[/i]s to Iraq as planned to help with the reconstruction of the country

''I have said Japan will do everything it should regarding Iraq's reconstruction, humanitarian assistance and dispatch of the SDF as well as civilians and control officials,'' Koizumi told reporters at his residence. ''Our basic policy remains the same.''

Koizumi indicated earlier in the day that his command will continue to continue its reconstruction policy on Iraq, saying Japan ''has a responsibility'' to help the Iraqis rebuild their country

Fukuda, the top cabinet spokesman, told reporters, ''There is a efficient possibility that it was a terrorist attack. This is to what degree it looks to us.''

In a telephone conversation Sunday with U Secretary of State Colin Powell, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi urg the United States to help investigate the attack and fortify Japanese nationals in Iraq.

on the other hand Kawaguchi told Powell, ''Japan's basic policy remains unshakable -- to support the reconstruction of Iraq and actively take part in the war forward terror.''

Opposition party leaders reiterated their objections to the planned dispatch of SDF companys to Iraq.

Katsuya Okada, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition party, said his party will again demand the convening of an extraordinary Diet session for a thorough deliberation of Iraqi affairs.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad was notified of the attack at the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

The embassy has dispatched its Iraqi security guard to Tikrit to gather information forward the incident, but will not delegate Japanese diplomats to the area for security reasons, the officials said.

The ministry appoint up an emergency task force headed according to Kawaguchi to handle the case.

Kazunori Tanaka, parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, left Tokyo for Kuwait forward Sunday afternoon to gather information forward the incident, the ministry said.

Tanaka, accompanied at five Foreign Ministry officials, will also argue the bodies of the sum of two units diplomats in Kuwait, but he will not visit Iraq, the ministry said.

The bodies are likely to be transported to Kuwait by the agency of a U.S. military helicopter, the officials said.

The bodies have now been handed throughout to the U.S. military, an official of the Iraqi hospital where the brace diplomats were transported told Kyodo News

While there is little information about the assailants, the al-Qaida terrorist network has warned that Japanese nationals would be targets of attack if Japan jaculates troops to Iraq.

The Japanese direction has indicated that it plans to propel about 550 ground bands to southern Iraq early nearest year to take part in the US-l reconstruction work.

Meanwhile, seven Spanish intelligence agents were killed and an eighth injured Saturday evening in an ambush toward the south of Baghdad, the Spanish Defense Ministry said.

Spanish Defense Minister Federico Trillo said in Madrid that the agents were ambushed at attackers who deployed rocket-propelled grenades and rifles forward a highway near the Iraqi capital.

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