Apr 18 08:09 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, April 18 (AP) - (Kyodo) — U.S. President Barack Obama asked Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama during informal talks earlier this month if Hatoyama could "follow through" when the Japanese leader requested Obama's cooperation on deciding by the end of May on where to relocate a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture, sources familiar with Japan-U.S. relations said Sunday.
Obama also told Hatoyama during the talks in Washington that no progress has been made on the issue to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa, while referring to the phrase "trust me," which Hatoyama used at their earlier talks in November, the sources said.
The remarks may be taken as Obama's doubt over Hatoyama's handling of the base issue.
Hatoyama has refused to disclose what Obama said during the brief talks, but said on Thursday after returning to Japan that he does not think Obama expressed any displeasure.
In Washington, Hatoyama told reporters after the informal talks during a working dinner for the Nuclear Security Summit that he did not mention by name any prospective relocation site to Obama.
He also told reporters that he asked Obama for understanding on the need to ease the base-hosting burden on Okinawa residents in the talks, which lasted only about 10 minutes while the two leaders were seated next to each other.
The two countries remain at an impasse over where the base should be relocated.
Hatoyama's government intends to negotiate with the U.S. government over a proposal to make Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, north of Okinawa, the relocation site for the helicopter unit now stationed at Futemma.
The United States has effectively rejected the Tokunoshima option as well as another option to relocate the Futemma base to an area off eastern Okinawa by building an artificial island in the sea.
The U.S. base row involves a 2006 bilateral deal involving a plan to relocate the Futemma airfield in the crowded city of Ginowan to a new airfield to be built in a coastal area of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa.
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