China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (L) talks to Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Prime Minister's official residence in Tokyo February 16, 2007. [Reuters]

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied on Monday that a groundbreaking security agreement he is to sign with Australian Prime Minister John Howard in Tokyo this week was aimed at reining in China.

The joint declaration is Japan's first on defense with a country other than the United States.

"All these efforts are not to encircle China or have any specific country like China in mind," Abe told Australian journalists through an interpreter.

Howard has also brushed off concerns that the defense pact would harm Canberra's flourishing ties with Beijing.

"It is important to the future that Japan assume a greater security role in the region," Howard told reporters in Tokyo on Monday.

Australian officials have said the agreement, to be signed on Tuesday, may lead to intelligence sharing and Japanese troops participating in exercises on Australian soil.

They have noted, though, that it would not be a mutual defense treaty like the one Tokyo has with Washington.

Japan has been making efforts across the board to improve its ability to defend itself, having depended on the United States for protection since World War II.

Japan, Australia and the United States have already tightened three-way security ties through regular dialogue. Tokyo and Canberra are Washington's closest allies in the Asia-Pacific, and both backed the US-led war in Iraq.

Howard is scheduled to meet Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma ahead of the signing.

POLITICAL FRICTION

Despite the cosier security ties, sources of friction persist.

Howard told reporters in Tokyo he would be raising the issue of Japan's wartime military brothels after Abe last month said there was no evidence that Japan's government or military was directly involved in kidnapping the mostly Asian women to serve as sex slaves during World War II.

"It was an appalling episode in a tragic period in the history of the world," he said. "There can be no quibbling about what happened. And there can be no quibbling in my view about the level of coercion that was involved.

"Any suggestion that there was not coercion is completely repudiated by me, and it has been completely repudiated by other allied countries," Howard said.

He added, however, that he believed Abe had made a strong statement on the issue reaffirming an earlier Japanese apology.

An Australian of Dutch descent testified along with two Koreans to the US Congress last month about how they were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers.

The US House of Representatives is considering a resolution calling on Japan to apologize unambiguously for its treatment of the "comfort women," as they are euphemistically known in Japan.

Howard also said he would raise the question of whaling. Japan wants to resume commercial hunting of whales, which it says is an important part of the country's cultural heritage. Australia is one of the most vocal opponents of whaling.

TRADE TALKS TO START

Trade could also prove a sticky subject.

Japan and Australia are to start talks next month on a free trade agreement as Tokyo and Canberra celebrate the 50th anniversary of commercial ties that have seen Japan grow into the biggest buyer of Australian exports.

Many in Japan, however, are concerned about the impact on the country's sensitive and politically powerful agricultural sector.

Cabinet ministers spoke out about the concerns in parliament on Monday and Foreign Minister Taro Aso raised these worries with Howard in a meeting on Monday.

"In negotiations it is important to take into account the sensitivity of the agricultural sector," a Japanese government official quoted Aso as telling Howard.

Howard told him that Japan was a very important customer for Australia, the same official said. "It's going to be very hard, because it's a sensitive issue here, but from our point of view, we want to make some progress," Howard told reporters of the talks after arriving in Tokyo on Sunday.

Japan and Australia did 4.07 trillion yen ($34.4 billion) of trade in 2005, with main Australian exports including coal, natural gas and beef. Japan's most important exports to Australia were motor vehicles and machinery.