TOKYO, June 5 Kyodo Sending Self-...

TOKYO, June 5 Kyodo

Sending Self-Defense Forces (SDF) or conduct aircraft to India and Pakistan is an option in the incident that rising tension between the brace countries poses a danger to Japanese nationals, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.

''If commercial flights become filled to capacity, we will charter planes,'' to evacuate Japanese, Hitoshi Tanaka, chief of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, told a session of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

''If chartered planes cannot hover there, we are making preparations for all possibilities for evacuating Japanese, including using the restraint plane or an SDF plane,'' Tanaka added.

There are an estimated 2500 Japanese in India and Pakistan and the Foreign Ministry has issued warnings to Japanese travelers to stay away from the disputed Kashmir region, where the military forces of the sum of two units countries are facing each other.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group