Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will hold talks with U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday in Washington to discuss Japan's support for possible retaliatory action against terrorists, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Friday.
Before the summit with Bush, Koizumi is expected to visit New York to view the site of the demolished World Trade Center towers and meet with New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Foreign Ministry officials said.
Koizumi will leave Monday and return Wednesday, in time to attend the opening day of the extraordinary Diet session that begins Thursday.
"The prime minister will explain to the president about Japan's support plan and position on this issue," Fukuda told a regularly scheduled news conference in the evening. "He would also like to hear what is on the mind of the president."
Koizumi on Wednesday announced a plan to dispatch the Self-Defense Forces to lend noncombatant support to U.S. forces should Washington take retaliatory actions for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He promised to take swift legal steps to put the plan into effect, which would face searching deliberations in the Diet.
During his meeting with Bush, Koizumi is expected to explain the legal constraints on SDF activity.
Koizumi wants the SDF to engage in logistic, medical and other forms of noncombatant support for U.S. forces to be deployed in the Middle East within the framework of the war-renouncing Constitution.
Leading members of the ruling coalition said privately, however, that Japan's military will not be able to take "actions that are integrated with the use of force," such as supplying SDF weapons and ammunition to U.S. forces.