The Defense Agency announced Tuesday that it plans to narrow the geographical areas where the Maritime Self-Defense Force is providing logistic support to U.S.-led forces fighting al-Qaeda militants in Afghanistan, in view of the outbreak of war in Iraq.

The agency did not reveal the exact areas where the logistic support would be pulled back, but observers said the move could be seen as an effective pledge by Tokyo to not have the Self-Defense Forces participate in the war on Iraq, even indirectly.

Speculation has been rife that Japan might move some of the three MSDF vessels now deployed in the Indian Ocean to refuel U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan closer to the Persian Gulf to provide logistic support to the war on Iraq.

The Indian Ocean is interpreted as including a part of the Persian Gulf.

The law, enacted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, states that Japan can offer logistic assistance in areas "where battles are not and will not be conducted."

"Some of our activities have come to fall out of the conditions set under the law," Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba told a regular news conference in explaining the change.

Meanwhile, Ishiba also confirmed that the validity of the antiterrorism law has been extended twice and is now effective until May 19.