The secretaries general of the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, New Komeito, said Wednesday that the security situation in Samawah, southern Iraq, is safe enough for Japanese troops there to stay beyond Tuesday's deadline.

LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe and his coalition counterpart, Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, made the statement after returning earlier in the day from Samawah, where they spent five hours at Japan's camp and another hour making the rounds of the city streets in an armored vehicle.

"Although there have been isolated incidents (such as two mortar rounds landing within the Self-Defense Forces camp), they cannot be regarded as rejecting the conditions for the area being a noncombat zone," as stipulated by the special law authorizing the troops to be in Iraq, Takebe said.

While critics have said Takebe and Fuyushiba made the trip only so they could give the government the green light to extend the SDF mission, Takebe said, "It is not a matter of one or two hours (spent in the area) -- what we observed is part of the factors (for the government) to make a decision."