Apr 9 09:14 AM US/Eastern
(AP) - TOKYO, April 9 (Kyodo) — U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos told Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Friday that the United States cannot at this moment enter into planned working-level talks with Japan over where to relocate a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa, Japanese government sources said.
The development is likely to make it even harder for the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to realize its pledge to resolve the thorny issue of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station by the end of May.
Japan and the United States were planning to hold bilateral working- level talks after the Japanese government came up with an idea to seek alteration of an existing bilateral accord on the relocation, referring to specific locations in and outside Okinawa.
But the United States has maintained that it prefers the accord reached in 2006, under which the facility is to be moved from a crowded residential area of Ginowan to the U.S. Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, also in Okinawa, by largely reclaiming land in the camp's coastal area.
The meeting between Okada and Roos took place ahead of Hatoyama's visit to the United States next week, during which he is expected to hold informal talks with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit.
The fact that the two countries did not set formal talks between the two leaders has aroused speculation they want to avoid revealing a rift over the issue, which has already strained bilateral ties.
Roos did not respond to questions from the media as he left the Foreign Ministry after meeting with Okada.
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