Australia veterans want apology from Abe

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set for a rocky appearance before Australia's parliament with war veterans on Tuesday calling for an apology over Japanese war crimes and environmentalists demanding an end to whaling.

Abe, under pressure at home over pension payments and the suicide of the country's agriculture minister, will be the first Japanese leader to address Australia's parliament following a September meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Sydney.

But Australia's biggest veterans group, the 200,000-strong Returned and Services League (RSL), said World War Two veterans would be expecting an olive branch from Abe over Japan's wartime record in his speech to both the lower house and upper houses.

"We must understand, appreciate and respect there are some people who suffered first hand the horrors of Japan's treatment during the Second World War, who continue to harbour concerns," RSL President Bill Crews told Reuters.

"In the light of Mr Abe's recent comments about comfort women, it will be an opportunity for him to clear the air."

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, who signed a security agreement in Tokyo in March deepening defence ties between Australia and Japan, told parliament that Abe's address to a rare joint sitting of the parliament was "entirely appropriate".

Abe's maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, in 1957 became the first post-war Japanese Prime Minister to visit Australia, where he expressed "profound regret" over Japan's war record and laid the foundation for Australia's second largest trade relationship.

Abe, 52, the youngest Japanese prime minister since World War Two, was also expected to visit the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, where the country's ambassador laid a wreath in 2005.