Tokyo, Nov 13: Japan said today conditions were not right for an immediate dispatch of Japanese troops to Iraq following the suicide bomb attack on an Italian base which killed at least 18 people. "If the situation allowed our self-defence forces to participate, they could go at any time," chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference.
"Unfortunately, it is not such a situation," he said.
The Japanese law on helping rebuild Iraq, enacted in July, prohibits the government from sending troops to combat zones.
Fukuda's comment revived fears that Japan's seemingly on-off promise of boots on the ground in Iraq may be delayed beyond the end of the year, which the spokesman named as a target timeline.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters that Japan remained committed to helping rebuild the shattered nation.
"We cannot be daunted by terrorism," he said when asked about the attack on the Italian base. "Iraq's reconstruction is a problem for the whole of the international community."
"We cannot lose to terrorists," he said. Bureau Report