The government is trying to organize a visit to the United States by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi before the extraordinary Diet session gets under way next week, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday.

"The Diet session will begin next week and we are coordinating so it (the visit) will be carried out by that time," Fukuda said at a news conference.

The extraordinary Diet session is scheduled to begin Thursday.

The prime minister is keen to visit the U.S. for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Asked when the prime minister may leave Tokyo, Fukuda said: " I think it could be next week. But that is, like I said, being coordinated."

President Bush is intensifying efforts to build a global coalition against terrorism. He met French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday as part of a series of talks with other world leaders.

Bush met with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Wednesday and has also spoken over the telephone with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Cooperation sought

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met leaders of three opposition parties Thursday and asked for their cooperation regarding Japan's support for a possible U.S. attack on Afghanistan, government officials said.

During a meeting at the Prime Minister's Official Residence, Koizumi explained the government's seven-point support plan, the details of which were announced Wednesday night.

According to the plan, members of the Self-Defense Forces will be dispatched to provide logistic support to U.S. forces, security measures will be strengthened at important facilities in Japan -- including U.S. military bases -- and SDF ships will be dispatched to gather information related to the terrorist attacks.

Koizumi has called on opposition parties to cooperate with this strategy in order to enable the government to enact new legislation and revise the current Self-Defense Forces Law during the extraordinary Diet session scheduled to convene Thursday.

Participating in the talks with Koizumi were Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan; Takako Doi, leader of the Social Democratic Party; and Kazuo Shii, leader of the Japanese Communist Party.

Hatoyama said he understands the need for international cooperation to combat terrorism and expressed basic support for the new legislation, the officials said.

He told Koizumi, however, that he opposes the transport of weapons and ammunitions during logistic support operations and also said it will be necessary for the government to clarify what kind of operations the SDF will be involved in, according to the officials.

Hatoyama also told Koizumi that a new United Nations resolution explicitly permitting retaliation by the U.S. would be necessary before Japan could offer its cooperation.

Koizumi replied that he intends to take the Diet's role in any decision seriously, but failed to respond to Hatoyama's remarks on the transport of weapons and ammunition, the officials said.

Shii told Koizumi that dispatching the SDF is a violation of the war-renouncing Constitution and that, while most of the country supports the eradication of terrorism, military retaliation will do nothing to achieve this, the officials said.

Doi said she opposes U.S. military retaliation, saying it could incur further retaliatory attacks, they said.

Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the Liberal Party, declined to participate in the talks, saying that Koizumi is not taking the Diet's role in the matter seriously.

The secretaries general of the three opposition parties, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda and Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, also attended the meeting.

Before its announcement Wednesday, the seven-point plan had been approved earlier in the evening by the three ruling coalition parties.