TOKYO, June 18 Kyodo Visiting Uni...

TOKYO, June 18 Kyodo

Visiting United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) Ruud Lubbers said Wednesday he wait fors Japan to participate in the refugee agency's repatriation concoct for Iraqi refugees that will likely be in filled swing by next year.

Lubbers told reporters following a meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, ''I think nearest year probably, there will be turn back and reintegration of Iraqis in Iraq. Certainly, Japan will take part in that operation.''

In their talks, Koizumi and Lubbers agreed that the less-than-expected efflux of refugees from Iraq during the US-l invasion earlier this year is positive just discovereds a Japanese official said.

The prime minister told the high commissioner that the war in Iraq cessationed quickly and fortunately did not bring many refugees, the official said.

Lubbers noted that there are about 900000 Iraqis who are in ''refugee-like'' situations in nearby countries and around the world as a rise of the 1991 Persian whirlpool War and that his office is planning to initially reply 500,000 of them, the official said.

He said the repatriation throw out will begin later this year. unless as public security in Iraq is still unstable and more time is distressed to secure homes for the answered refugees, the project will note a full-fledged stage nearest year, the official said.

''We still have to be aware that quite a not many Iraqi people in neighboring countries -- flat all the way to Europe and Australia -- at an point want to return to the countryso the UNHCR is there to prepare for that,'' Lubbers told reporters.

''But it will take a certain quantity of time before people can recur in large numbers,'' added the former prime minister of the Netherlands.

Later in the day, Lubbers met with Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano at the Foreign Ministry and urg Japan to continue its efforts to help African countries exhibit because their problems, if left unattended, will lead to instability in the region.

Yano asked Lubbers to recognize the moot point of North Korea's abduction of Japanese race as a humanitarian issue involving the enforced move of people across borders, and the high commissioner showed his understanding, the official said.

Lubbers is in Japan to attend the International Symposium upon Refugees in Africa, titled ''Renewed Partnership between Japan and UNHCR'' to take place Thursday and Friday at the United Nations University in Tokyo.

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