Fukuda to meet Bush on Friday

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will visit the United States on Friday for talks with U.S. President George W Bush and then travel to Singapore next week to attend annual regional summit meetings, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Monday.


The top government spokesman said that in his talks with Bush, Fukuda is expected to reaffirm the Japan-U.S. alliance and his wish to further enhance it, as well as to express his intention of making the alliance and Japan's Asian diplomacy resonate with each other. Fukuda is expected to express his determination to resume at an early date Japan's refueling operations in support of U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan, according to sources close to the matter