Obama, Japan PM to agree on alliance review: report

TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States and Japan will agree this week to review their decades-old security alliance to tighten ties long term, a Japanese newspaper said Wednesday, as the two countries struggled to keep a feud over a U.S. military base from spoiling their leaders' summit.

Tokyo and Washington are expected to turn down the heat in the row during President Barack Obama's two-day stay from Friday, the start of an Asian tour, but recasting the alliance as the partners adapt to China's growing clout will be tough.

Obama and new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who has pledged to steer a diplomatic course more independent of Washington, will reach the agreement on reviewing the alliance at their summit on Friday, the Mainichi newspaper reported.

The two sides would aim to wrap up the discussions by next November when Obama will be back in Japan for an Asia-Pacific leaders' summit, the paper said.

Hatoyama has said he wanted to conduct a comprehensive review of the alliance, which marks its 50th anniversary next year, to create a multi-layered relationship long term.

Obama, in an interview with NHK public TV on Tuesday, stressed the importance of the ties, long seen as central to regional security arrangements.

"We depend on Japan as a stalwart ally on a whole host of global issues that we work on together and so I have both great affection for the Japanese people personally, but also understand the important strategic relationship that we have to continually nurture," Obama told NHK public TV in an interview aired Tuesday.

"I think that Prime Minister Hatoyama understands that the core fundamentals of this relationship are unchanged."

The dispute over the U.S. Marines' Futenma air base on Japan's southern island of Okinawa has threatened to cloud Obama's visit to Japan, his first as president.