Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed with his Australian counterpart John Howard during a telephone conversation on Thursday to go on to work together on issues such as reconstruction in Iraq, countermeasures against global warming, and the Korean peninsula nuclear issue, Kyodo News reported.

In the conversation, Howard reiterated Australia's support for Japan on the issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's past abduction of Japanese nationals.

The two leaders also agreed to continue cooperation on realizing a successful summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum slated for September in Sydney, Japanese officials were quoted as saying.

Japan and Australia agreed to promote bilateral strategic security cooperation in March during Howard's Tokyo tour.

Source: Xinhua