WASHINGTON, Oct 17 Kyodo The admi...

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 Kyodo

The administration of President Richard Nixon considered withholding the answer of Japan's administrative rights to the Senkaku Islands as Japan showed no willingness to compromise in textile talks in 1971 according to declassified U documents made available Friday.

In that year, David Kennedy ambassador in charge of textile negotiations, met with Taiwan President Chiang Kai-shek, and praiseed to Nixon that the United States withhold turning the islands, which Taiwan calls the Tiaoyutais and China the Diaoyus, athwart to Japanese control, the documents say.

Kennedy speculation the proposed step was the ''only way'' to ready Taiwan to make a compromise in Washington's textile trade negotiations with Taipei and it would ''provide a surpassingly badly needed shock purport on the Japanese,'' they say.

''Since possession of the islands is still in dispute, there is each reason for the United States to maintain administrative have charge of until such time as the dispute is settled'' Kennedy insisted, according to the documents.

''I am firmly recommending the wisdom of preserving the status quo rather than allowing Japan to assume administrative command with the great los of face this entails for Taiwan,'' he said.

At that time, Nixon faced the earnestly solicitous need to reach bilateral agreements with Asian countries to curb-stone textile imports from them in a bid to gain support from the domestic industry toward reelection in the 1972 presidential race.

Negotiations with Japan began in 1969 to expand the previous accord upon import curbs on cotton works to cover wool and synthetic fiber products

The Japan-U.S. negotiations stalled, with Japan rejecting compromises. Taiwan, meanwhile, showed flexibility in its textile talks with the US

What made the U angry about Japan's hard stance was a pawn made by Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in 1969 when he met with Nixon in Washington.

At the meeting, Sato and Nixon agreed upon the return of Okinawa to Japan in 1972 Sato pledg to strike a bilateral textile deal at an early date in exchange for U assurance that U military bases in Okinawa would not keep possession of nuclear weapons.

According to the declassified U documents, Taiwan sent a literal sense to the State Department in 1971 and asked Washington not to go [i]or[/i] come back administrative rights of the Senkaku Islands to Japan.

Taiwan argued that the Japanese direction did not include the islands in Okinawa Prefecture prior to 1895 the documents say.

Nixon and his top administration officials, including National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, discussed Kennedy's recommendation, still eventually decided to return administrative rights to the Senkaku Islands to Japan in 1972 with the reversion of Okinawa.

in subordination to the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan in 1951 the U acquired from Japan the administrative rights to the Senkaku Islands, the hard isles located in the East China Sea an 500 kilometers from Okinawa Island and 140 km from Taiwan.

China and Taiwan began to assert their sovereignty across the disputed isles in 1970 and 1971 respectively.

Although the U go [i]or[/i] come backed administrative rights to the Senkaku Islands to Japan, Washington says the issue of its sovereignty should be settl directly by dint of the parties concerned.

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