February 05, 2007	Monday	Muharram 16, 1428

TOKYO, Feb 4: Japan's foreign minister has criticised the United States policy in Iraq as “very naive” and blamed it for spiralling unrest there, in another swipe at US tactics by the key Washington ally.

Taro Aso said late on Saturday in Kyoto that the then US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld “started off the war, but the operation after the occupation was very naive.” ”Because this operation did not work well, it (Iraq) is in trouble now,” he said, quoted by Jiji Press.

“It became clear that the operation after a war is very important when you think about peace-building.” Aso's comments came on the day a suicide bomber blew up his Mercedes truck in a Baghdad market, killing at least 130 people and injuring hundreds, in the second deadliest attack since the US-led invasion of 2003.

They follow comments by Japanese Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma who has made a series of critical remarks about US policies, which provoked displeasure from the US State Department.

Last month Kyuma said US President George W. Bush was wrong to invade Iraq and warned that Tokyo might not automatically renew its air force mission to the war-torn country.

Shigeru Ishiba, then defence chief when the pacifist nation took the historic step to send troops to Iraq in January 2004, on Sunday criticized Kyuma.

“I don't know if it's appropriate for Japan, which relies on the United States the most (for national security), to make such comments when the US is going through the most difficult time,” Ishiba said in a TV Asahi programme.

“The US is the only ally for Japan,” he said. “If a North Korean missile flew to Japan now, it's only the US that could protect Japan.”

Former premier Junichiro Koizumi, a close friend of Bush, took the landmark step as a staunch backer of the Iraq invasion and deployed troops to the relatively peaceful area around the Iraqi city of Samawa, in the first mission of its kind since defeat in WWII.

Kyuma's criticisms came just hours after an embattled Bush had used his annual State of the Union speech to plead for public support to send more troops to Iraq.

The Japanese-US alliance has been touted in both capitals as the strongest in decades. But incoming number two US diplomat John Negroponte cautioned after Kyuma's remarks that Washington should not take its relations with its staunchest ally in Asia for granted.—AFP