Japan pledged Friday to keep cutting purchases of Iranian crude in the clearest public offer of support yet among Asia's big buyers for US efforts to tighten an international noose around Iran in an escalating dispute over its nuclear ambitions. Japan's Trade Minister Yukio Edano during a news conference in Tokyo, Friday told the visiting US officials that Japan's imports of Iranian crude oil were on the decline, and the trend would continue. Other Asian buyers of Iran's crude have indicated less co-operation or been less forthright in their comments following a flurry of visits to the continent in the past two weeks by envoys of President Barack Obama, who signed a new sanctions law on New Year's Eve aimed at starving Tehran of critical oil revenues. Asian support for US sanctions is vital since the region buys more than half of Iran's daily crude exports. The EU has committed to banning Iran crude imports. China, Iran's biggest crude customer, rejected the US sanctions as overstepping the mark and defended its extensive imports from the second-biggest oil producer in OPEC. India, the second-biggest importer of Iranian crude, also rejected the US pressure and said it would continue to trade with Tehran.
