TOKYO: After weeks of stalled negotiations, Japan has agreed to pay almost 60% of the cost of transferring thousands of US marines from Okinawa to Guam in a move designed to reduce the US’s military burden on one of its closest allies.

Japan’s defence minister, Fukushiro Nukaga, announced the deal after more than three hours of talks in Washington with the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. “I had not expected that such an agreement was possible,” Mr Nukaga told reporters. “Japan and the United States were still wide apart on the issue and I thought ‘It won’t go anywhere unless I directly meet Mr Rumsfeld for talks aimed at a breakthrough.’”

Under the agreement, which is part of Washington’s plans to realign its forces around the world, Japan will pay $6.1bn towards the $10bn it is expected to cost to move 8,000 marines and their families to Guam, a US territory located roughly midway between Japan and Australia.

Japan will pay $2.8bn in grants, with the remainder coming in various loans. Japan had refused US demands to pay 75% of the total while it struggles to rein in its huge public debt. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service