Apparently bidding to maintain flexibility in its plan to ease the nation's long-held ban on arms exports, the government will likely withhold the plan from a new defense program outline, according to sources.

Instead, the decision to relax the policy over Japan-U.S. joint missile-defense (MD) projects and possibly other programs will be announced in a statement by the top government spokesman, they said.

Faced with opposition-likely for different reasons-from junior coalition partner New Komeito and some Liberal Democratic Party leaders, the government and ruling parties agreed not to expressly state the change in the new National Defense Program Outline to be formulated next month.

But keeping the ban out of the outline adds a certain degree of flexibility, as noted by Fumio Kyuma, chairman of the LDP's General Council.

``If we write it into the outline, we will have to review it at times of (policy) change,'' sources quoted Kyuma as saying.

According to the sources, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda will make the policy change clear in a statement to be issued after the Cabinet approves the new outline.

Sources reported that Hosoda will likely say in his statement that ``Japan-U.S. joint development and manufacturing of MD-related (products) and so on'' will be excluded from the ban-thus paving the way for allowing arms exports other than MD projects in the future.

In draft proposals presented to the coalition parties, the government planned to allow exports of weapons jointly developed and produced either with the United States or in multinational projects led by the United States.

The draft also proposed excluding from the ban weapons used in international efforts to fight terrorism and piracy.

The policy change was either to be included in the outline or announced by the chief Cabinet secretary, according to the draft proposals.

In response, New Komeito approved MD-related joint development and production-inevitably involving sales of parts and components to the United States-but called for case-by-case decisions on arms sales for fighting terrorism and piracy. The party also insisted that the policy change be announced by Hosoda as an ``exception'' rather than included in the outline.

But Hosoda's statement will allow for broad coverage without clearly approving multinational development and production of weapons led by the United States, the sources said.(IHT/Asahi: December 1,2004)