Japan's Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono said Tuesday he hopes the defense cooperation with the United States could be expanded to a world-wide scope.

"If we were to think about Japan's future defense and security, I hope we can discuss international cooperation a little bit more.I want Japan and the United States to talk about cooperating on a worldwide scale," Kyodo News quoted him as saying.

Japan is stepping up efforts to revise its defense policy in a bid to tackle "new threats" and participate in international operations.

The Japanese government reportedly would set up troops to deal with contingencies and carry out international peacekeeping operations in the upcoming revised National Defense Program Outline. Japan's Self-Defense Forces had been on overseas missionssince the early 1990s despite debates on whether they were in linewith its pacifist constitution.

Ono also said a US-Japan joint declaration should be reviewed, suggesting a reduction of US forces in the Asia-Pacific region in light of the securing of more effective defense capacities, according to Kyodo.

At a 1996 summit, then Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and US President Bill Clinton signed the joint declaration, in which the United States agreed to maintain some 100,000 forces in the region.

US President George W. Bush has expressed his intention to realign the global military presence to more effectively deal withnew security situations, including terrorism.

Negotiations are under way between the two allies about relocation and part withdrawal of US troops in Japan to ease burden of local people, especially in the southern Okinawa Prefecture.

Source: Xinhua