( AFP ) - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates is to visit Japan next month, a report said Saturday, as Washington seeks to persuade Tokyo to maintain its support for forces in Afghanistan.
Gates will hold talks on regional security with his counterparts in China and South Korea as well as visiting Japan for the first time since he took office last December, the Sankei Shimbun daily said.
It said he would use the trip to discuss Japan's mission to provide fuel and other support to US-led forces in the Indian Ocean.
The opposition has vowed to bring Japan's ships home, arguing that the officially pacifist country should not be part of "American wars."
The legislation allowing Japan's participation in the "war on terror" is set to expire next week.
Gates also plans to hold security talks with high-ranking military officials in China after the Communist Party reorganised its military committee during its five-yearly Congress, the paper said.