The Foreign Ministry is baffled by the reported plans by New Komeito Secretary General Tetsuzo Fuyushiba -- and possibly his Liberal Democratic Party counterpart, Tsutomu Takebe -- to visit the area in southern Iraq where Ground Self-Defense Force troops are deployed.

The two hope to visit Samawah before a one-year extension of the GSDF deployment is endorsed by the Cabinet -- probably on Dec. 10 -- in order to show they have inspected the security situation there, a top Foreign Ministry official said.

Although New Komeito is expected to support the extension, Soka Gakkai, the lay Buddhist group that serves as New Komeito's principal supporter, is reluctant to endorse the continued deployment of troops in Iraq.

New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki visited Samawah briefly last December -- just before the government issued a dispatch order for the first batch of GSDF troops -- saying he wanted to check the local security situation.

During a news conference, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima issued a tacit request that they cancel the trip, reminding them that the ministry has issued a travel warning against entering war-torn Iraq.

The top ministry official, who asked not to be named, said the government cannot stop the visit since it allowed Kanzaki to travel to Samawah last December.

If the government were to stop the pair from visiting Samawah due to security concerns, it could prompt speculation as to whether the city is safe enough to host the GSDF troops, the official said. A special law enacted last year stipulates that the troops in Iraq can only operate in "noncombat" zones.

The ministry will inform the interim Iraqi government on the visit, the official said.