The United States and Japan look set to avoid a collision over where to relocate a Marine base when President Barack Obama visits Tokyo next week, but the row could still fray security ties in the months ahead, Reuters reported. A dispute over a replacement facility for Futenma air base on Japan"s southern island of Okinawa, a key part of a realignment of U.S. troops in Japan, has strained the alliance, seen as the core of regional security arrangements. The row coincides with deepening questions about how China"s rising military and economic clout will reshape security ties. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took office in September pledging to forge more equal ties with Washington, had said before his party"s election victory that he wanted to move the base off Okinawa to ease the burden on residents there. But U.S. officials say they want to push ahead with a 2006 deal to move it from the crowded city of Ginowan in central Okinawa to a remoter site by 2014 as a prerequisite to moving 8,000 Marines off the island to the U.S. territory of Guam. Washington has notified Japan it will not press for a decision by Obama"s Nov. 12-13 visit, but wants a resolution to the dispute by the end of the year, the Nikkei newspaper said. But Hatoyama repeated on Friday that he had no plan to decide by the time of Obama"s trip -- or to say when he would make up his mind. -- SPA
