US, Japan vow to revitalize strained ties

> TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged on Friday to revitalize their strained security alliance as they adapt to a rising China, set to overtake Japan as the world's No.2 economy. But they left unresolved a feud over a U.S. military base on Japan's southern Okinawa island that has frayed Washington's ties with Hatoyama's government, under pledge to steer a diplomatic course less dependent on its ally and forge closer relations with Asia. "I told him that the U.S-Japan alliance is the cornerstone of everything," Hatoyama told a news conference after their summit.

"President Barack Obama and Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged on Friday to revitalize their strained security alliance as they adapt to a rising China, set to overtake Japan as the world's No.2 economy""But given the changing times and global environment, I would like to deepen the alliance and create a new U.S.-Japan alliance that is constructive and future-oriented." Obama, on his first Asian tour as leader, agreed. "Our alliance will endure and our efforts will be focused on revitalizing that friendship so that it's even stronger and more successful in meeting the challenges of the 21st century." Tokyo is the first stop in Obama's nine-day Asian tour that takes him to Singapore for an Asia-Pacific summit, to China for talks on climate change and trade imbalances, and to South Korea, where North Korea's nuclear ambitions will be in focus. Hatoyama and Obama agreed on a plan to review their alliance over the next year, with a view to deepening it as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of their security treaty in 2010. But assuaging anxiety and beginning to define a new direction for the alliance will be a difficult task, as will be resolving the dispute over the U.S. Marines Futenma air base.

"They are both determined to avoid public disagreements and to put off, for a little while, the issues they cannot resolve, namely bases. But they won't be able to put them off for too long," said Daniel Sneider, associate director for research at Stanford's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Obama said Washington and Tokyo were equal partners already and stressed that the alliance was strong and vital. But he made clear that he wants Tokyo to implement a 2006 deal under which Futenma, located in a crowded part of Okinawa, would be closed and replaced with a facility in a remoter part of the island.

"military base on Japan's southern Okinawa island that has frayed Washington's ties with Hatoyama's government, under pledge to steer a diplomatic course less dependent on its ally and forge closer relations with Asia"Replacing Futenma is a prerequisite to shifting up to 8,000 Marines to the U.S. territory of Guam, part of a broader realignment of American forces in Japan. REFRAMING THE ALLIANCE Hatoyama said before the election that the base should be moved off Okinawa, fanning hopes of the island's residents, reluctant hosts to more than half the U.S. forces in Japan. "The United States and Japan have set up a high-level working group that will focus on implementation of the agreement that our two governments reached with respect to the restructuring of the U.S.

forces in Okinawa and we hope to complete this work expeditiously," Obama said. Continued