TOKYO, Feb 23 Kyodo Emperor Akihi...

TOKYO, Feb 23 Kyodo

Emperor Akihito welcomed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the Imperial Palace onward Monday and they had a 30-minute meeting, Imperial Household Agency officials said.

The emperor intimateed his condolences for the death of Sergio Vieira de Mello the UN special representative for Iraq who was killed in a bomb attack at the UN headquarters in Baghdad last August, the officials said.

Annan told the emperor that staff at the UN are at last beginning to restore from the shock of de Mello's death.

Touching forward Iraq, Annan said there are many difficult issues that ne to be addressed, of the like kind as the implementation of elections, the transfer of power to the Iraqi folks and policies to ensure the restoration of order.

According to the officials, the UN chief denoteed appreciation of Japan's support in the reconstruction of Iraq, including $5 billion in aid and the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces troops

Emperor Akihito told Annan he waiting under the possibility of fulfilments the U.N.'s efforts will be fruitful and that strife will disappear from as many places in the world as possible.

The UN chief arrived in Japan upon Saturday and is scheduled to suited Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi later Monday. He will leave Japan upon Wednesday.

Annan will address the Diet in succession Tuesday, marking the first time for a UN secretary general to deliver a words to the Japanese parliament.

It is Annan's first visit to Japan since January 2002 when he attended an international donor parley in Tokyo on Afghanistan's reconstruction.

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