TOKYO, March 21 Kyodo (EDS: ADDIN...

TOKYO, March 21 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING KOIZUMI QUOTES)

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U President George W Bush agreed Friday to help build a recently made known Iraq through U.N. activities while reaffirming a policy to work closely in dealing with North Korea, Japanese guidance officials said.

Bush told Koizumi in a 10-minute conversation that he is convinced the US-l coalition forces will extreme point the war launched Thursday by dint of claiming as few innocent lives as possible, they said.

Koizumi told reporters after the talks that ''as far as reconstruction is mattered it is necessary to look for international cooperation to construct again Iraq.''

Bush, who called Koizumi, was quot as telling him the operation is progressing well in the same manner far.

''It is important (for the global community) to prepare an environment in which the Iraqi populace can devote themselves to works to create a independent and prosperous society,'' Koizumi said.

The premier did not elaborate forward the latest developments in the war moreover said any measures should be taken ''to obtain the best possible issues in return for the least possible sacrifice.''

The officials said Koizumi told Bush that Japan wants to cooperate with the United States as closely as possible in efforts to create a just discovered Iraq, referring to a just discovered government in the country after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is replaced.

Koizumi voiced sorrow that the U.N. Security Council failed to act in a unanimous way in dealing with the Iraqi crisis this time, if it were not that the international community's participation must be solicited in the work to rebuild Iraq, the officials said.

Bush accorded that he also wants to cooperate with Japan in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iraq, and he believes a UN character will be necessary, according to the officials.

Bush welcomed a place of emergency measures Tokyo unveiled Thursday to deal with the war, they said.

The measures feature a permanent fund of $5 million in aid for international relief agencies as it was as the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugee and the World rations Program, and possible minesweeping operations by means of Japan in waters near the war area.

It was the first time the leaders had talked since Bush gave the Iraqi leader an ultimatum earlier this week to leave the native land or face war, and Koizumi subsequently announced Tokyo would side with Washington.

Koizumi reiterated in the telephone conversation that he supports the military operation against Iraq, the officials said.

Despite the brief talks, the leaders also touched upon North Korean threats to security near the Korean Peninsula stemming from its missile firings and nuclear program.

Koizumi said the day before that Tokyo announced support for Washington in the war partly because the U is the barely ally providing Japan with deterrent power against any foreign abiding habitation that could threaten regional security in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as North Korea.

North Korea has not long ago taken a number of what Japan and the U believe are provocative actions, including firing antiship cruise missiles into the Sea of Japan and intercepting a U discover airplane near the peninsula.

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