WASHINGTON (AFP) ? The United States and Japan scrapped a 2014 deadline for a controversial shift of a US base in Okinawa, but stood firmly behind the plan in the face of opposition in both countries.
The future of the Futenma air base on the subtropical island has bedeviled ties between the Pacific allies for years, and both governments have been eager to push ahead on a 2006 deal instead of restarting exhaustive negotiations.
In a joint statement after top-level talks, Tokyo and Washington said the relocation "will not meet the previous targeted date of 2014" but renewed their commitment to complete the project "at the earliest possible date."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meeting with their Japanese counterparts, also confirmed plans to move 8,000 Marines and some 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to the US territory of Guam.
Under the 2006 agreement between previous governments, the United States planned to shut the flashpoint Futenma base in Okinawa, which has long been a source of grievance as it lies in a crowded urban area.
The Japanese and US leaders on Tuesday endorsed building a replacement base with V-shaped runways at Henoko on an isolated stretch of beach elsewhere on the strategically located island.
A number of activists on Okinawa demanded that the base be removed entirely from the island, the often reluctant host to half of the 47,000 US troops based in Japan under a post-World War II treaty.
US senators recently moved to force the Pentagon to consider a new option, saying the current plan is too costly and politically unrealistic when Japan should be focusing on the rebuilding from its massive earthquake.
Gates said the effort led by Senators Jim Webb and Carl Levin, members of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, "is really a manifestation of growing congressional impatience about the lack of progress."
"We both reaffirmed the US government's commitment to the 2006 realignment plan, but at the same time emphasized the importance of concrete progress over the course of the next year," Gates told a news conference with Clinton.
The center-left Democratic Party of Japan swept to power in a historic 2009 election and pledged to review the Futenma deal. The party's first prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, quit within a year after the Obama administration refused to budge.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa called the delay on Futenma "the cost entailed in democracy" and said he would keep trying to persuade skeptical Okinawans.
"The purpose of the US realignment is to maintain deterrence and to reduce the local burden, so we will be making maximum efforts with the United States to achieve both objectives," Kitazawa said.
Under an alternative plan drafted by Webb, a former Marine who represents Virginia, Futenma would be closed and its air assets largely shifted to Okinawa's existing Kadena Air Base.
Webb also proposed shifting some of the existing air assets from Kadena to elsewhere in Japan and Guam, a solution he said would ease both congestion and costs in Okinawa.
Webb called Tuesday's statement on the base realignment "predictable" and voiced confidence that the US Congress would block funding for the move to Guam until the Pentagon studies alternatives.
The delay in the current Futenma plan "underscores the importance of resolving US basing realignments in a more realistic manner for the good of our alliance and for our strategic posture in East Asia," he said.
The two countries in their statement hailed post-earthquake defense cooperation and took a new step by agreeing to allow export of a joint missile shield the allies have been building together to face the North Korean threat.
Japan, officially pacifist since World War II, ended a ban on arms exports in 2005. Under Tuesday's agreement, the United States has the right to export the next-generation Standard Missile 3 system.
Prospective buyers may include Australia, South Korea and members of the European Union as they share strict guidelines against transfers to third countries, Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Satoru Satoh said.
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