Japan's ruling party approved a plan to extend by six months Tokyo's naval mission providing logistical support to the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, an official said Thursday. The extended mission, which involves refueling and supplying coalition warships in the region, was approved by the Liberal Democratic Party's policy deliberation commission and several subgroups, party spokesman Keiji Konishi said. Japan launched the operation in November 2001 and has extended its half-year mandate six times since. The current authority expires Nov. 1. The LDP's highest decision-making body was due to rubber-stamp the plan on Friday, to be followed by approval from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet next Tuesday. The non-combat mission by the Japanese navy in the Arabian Sea was the first in a series of decisions by Koizumi that have tested the limits of the nation's pacifist constitution since he took office in April 2001. Koizumi has also sent about 1,000 Japanese military personnel to Iraq and surrounding areas for humanitarian projects.
