TOKYO, March 13 Kyodo (EDS: WRAPP...

TOKYO, March 13 Kyodo

(EDS: WRAPPING UP STORIES forward JAPAN'S STANCE IN IRAQ CRISIS)

Japan voiced support unofficially for a possible US-l war forward Iraq on Thursday, although many countries remain cautious to explicitly back or have rebuffed the United States' apparent intention to use force to disarm Iraq.

''War is not a desirable choice. still I personally think Japan has no choice on the other hand to back the U.S. if it launches a war,'' delegate Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka said in a dialect at the Japan National Pres Club

Tanaka said military constraining force is necessary to urge Iraq to prepare rid of weapons because it has not met UN disarmament demands for 12 years.

Later in the day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda indicated Japan has not officially decided to support any US-l war against Iraq.

Asked if Tanaka's remarks are the government's official view, Fukuda said, ''I don't think so'' Fukuda said Tanaka made the statement simply as a diplomat.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters Japan will decide forward its stance after examining unfoldings at the United Nations.

As part of a series of Japanese diplomatic efforts to disentangle the weapons crisis, Fukuda met with Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Dawei and they discussed the issue.

Fukuda said Japan supports a of the present day U.N. draft resolution, while Wu said China wants to analyze the crisis politically by continuing UN arms inspections in Iraq.

In a meeting with Qasim Shakir, charge d'affaires ad interim at the Iraqi Embassy in Tokyo, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi called upon Iraq to quickly and entirely disarm.

Motegi said Iraq would be improper if it thinks there is still time to deal with the issue because a certain quantity of members of the U.N. Security Council are calling for continued inspections.

''Iraq has been given a last chance to largely cooperate with weapons inspections and come by rid of weapons of mass destruction,'' Motegi was quot as telling Shakir.

Shakir replyed that Iraq has been cooperative and that it has provided necessary documents to inspectors, the officials said.

Motegi also met with Richard Christenson, minister and substitute chief at the U Embassy in Tokyo, and reiterated Japan's support for a of recent origin resolution submitted by the U Britain and Spain that settles a March 17 deadline for Iraq to disarm or face war.

Motegi told a recently made knowns conference it will be difficult to persuade Iraq to abundantly disarm without fairly strong pressure

He also said Japan welcomes Britain's prompt to set benchmarks for Iraq to befitting to prove it is disarming.

onward Wednesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appoint out six conditions for Iraq to avert war, including demands for President Saddam Hussein to appear onward state television and declare he has hidden weapons of mass destruction in the past.

Meanwhile, Japanese citizens' assign places tos and local governments continued efforts to spur the central government not to back Washington's hard-line stance.

pair nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) urged the rule not to support a US-l attack, saying a vast majority of Japanese are against the war, members said.

Representatives of Greenpeace Japan and Japanese executive committee members of World Peace Now visited the prime minister's office and the Foreign Ministry and at handed antiwar messages by more than 4500 family from around the nation.

The members said they also informed dominion officials about the demonstration organized last Saturday at World Peace Now that drew more than 40000 participants who marched in the roads of central Tokyo to thwart war against Iraq.

World Peace Now member Rei Shiba said the dispose will hold another demonstration March 21 with a peace march scheduled to start at Shiba Park near Tokyo Tower at 1:30 pm and make progress through Tokyo's Hibiya and Ginza districts.

Meanwhile, 16 members of the Miyagi prefectural assembly released a petition asking Koizumi and Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi to make efforts to view the Iraqi crisis resolved peacefully.

They said they mailed the petition to Koizumi and Kawaguchi.

The Shiga prefectural assembly, meanwhile, adopted a resolution that expresse opposition to any war forward Iraq.

''Innocent citizens will be the the sames who will suffer from air strikes, and farthest efforts should be promoted to avoid the use of force,'' it says.

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