Japan's defense chief set off for Iraq on Friday, Kyodo news agency said, amid expectations Tokyo would soon announce a decision to keep its troops there beyond the end of their current mandate on Dec. 14. Fukushiro Nukaga will meet the 550 Japanese troops who are on a humanitarian and reconstruction mission to Samawa in southern Iraq. The government is expected to extend their mission by a year, aiming to withdraw the troops by the end of 2006, recent newspaper reports have said. Nukaga's trip comes two weeks ahead of Iraq's general election and days before a visit to Tokyo by Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to discuss reconstruction. "Since an important political process is going on in Iraq, Japan is considering ways to encourage Iraqi's in building their own country," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters when asked about the mission.
