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Okada broadly accepts existing plan for U.S. base relocation: report+
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WASHINGTON, April 24 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada has indicated that he would broadly accept an existing plan to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps base within Okinawa Prefecture, the Washington Post reported Saturday in its online edition.

In his meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos on Friday, Okada said that Japan is moving toward accepting significant parts of a 2006 bilateral deal to move the Futemma Air Station to a coastal area in the island prefecture, the newspaper said by quoting sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Okada, however, proposed some modifications, such as altering the design of the runway at the new air station, it said.

Under the 2006 bilateral agreement, forged as part of the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, Futemma's heliport functions would be moved from the densely populated city of Ginowan in Okinawa to a coastal area of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago in the same prefecture.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is seeking to resolve by the end of May a dispute over where to relocate the Futemma facility, and ideas including relocating the base to Tokunoshima, a Kagoshima Prefecture island about 200 kilometers northeast of the main island of Okinawa, have been floated.