The government is considering inviting Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum to visit Japan in late November, Foreign Ministry sources said Friday.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>If the visit takes place, the Iraqi ministers are expected to ask Japan to keep its troops deployed in Samawah, where they are engaged in reconstruction work.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>The two Iraqi ministers would be the first Cabinet members from Iraq's transitional government to visit Japan since it was inaugurated in April, the sources said.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>The Iraqi oil minister would meet officials from Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy and private companies to discuss ways to promote cooperation in Iraq's oil industry.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>Japan is expected to make a commitment to help Iraq with the general election in December and announce plans to implement by March 31, 2006, the first project financed under a $3.5 billion government loan package to the war-torn country, the sources said.</PARAGRAPH>
<SUBHEAD> GSDF troops depart </SUBHEAD>
<PARAGRAPH> SAPPORO –
About 120 members of the Ground Self-Defense Force on Friday left for Pakistan to participate in emergency relief activities, following Saturday's devastating earthquake there.
During a send-off ceremony in Obihiro, Hokkaido, members of the 5th Brigade briefed Lt. Gen. Kenji Tokuda, commander of the GSDF headquarters for northern Japan, on their mission.
The GSDF troops, who departed from the Chitose base aboard a government plane, were to arrive in Islamabad Friday night and join the GSDF's advance team.
