Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari will visit Japan later this month, a Japanese daily said on Sunday, two days after a newspaper report said Japan was considering withdrawing its troops from Iraq by next September. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi faces a touchy decision on whether to extend Japan's dispatch of around 600 ground troops to Samawa in southern Iraq beyond December, when the current mandate for their humanitarian and reconstruction mission expires. Iraq is likely to be high on the agenda at Nov. 16 talks in Japan between U.S. President George W. Bush and Koizumi, whose show of solidarity in sending troops in early 2004 cemented close ties between the leaders. With the time limit for a decision nearing, Zebari will make a 4-day visit to Japan from Nov. 23, the Nihon Keizai daily said. Zebari told Japanese Senior Vice Foreign Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda in a meeting in Bahrain on Saturday that he would accept an invitation by Japan to visit, it added. Japanese Foreign Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment, Reuters reported.
