WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States will deploy anuclear aircraft carrier in Japan in 2008, to replace the diesel-powered USS Kitty Hawk, the US Navy announced Thursday.

    The Navy said in a statement that the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, one of its nine Nimitz-class carriers, will arrive in Yokosuka, Japan, in 2008 "as the forward deployed carrier in the Western Pacific."

    The USS Kitty Hawk carrier, which was commissioned in 1961, is nearing the end of its service life and will return to the United States in 2008 to be decommissioned, the statement said.

    The US Navy currently has 12 aircraft carriers, and the Kitty Hawk and the USS John F. Kennedy are the only conventionally powered ones. Kitty Hawk is the Navy's oldest ship in active service and the only US aircraft carrier permanently deployed abroad.

    "The forward deployment of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier ensures the ability of commander, US Pacific Fleet to fulfill the US government's commitment to the defense of Japan, and the maintenance of international peace and security in the Far East insupport of the treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security," the statement said.

    The ship rotation was part of the Navy's long-range effort to routinely replace older ships assigned to its forward deployed naval forces with newer or more capable platforms, and was "part of an ongoing effort to consider the nature of all forward deployed forces when looking at the unpredictable security environment in the Western Pacific," it said.

    The carrier announcement followed an agreement between the two sides in Tokyo on Wednesday to relocate a US military base on the southern island of Okinawa.

    Since 1964, US nuclear-powered warships have visited Japanese ports more than 1,200 times. The Navy said the United States has provided firm commitments to Japan regarding the safe use of Japanese ports by US nuclear powered warships and confirmed that the nuclear carrier would observe strictly all safety precautions and procedures. Enditem

US assures Japan of safe operations of nuclear carrier

    TOKYO, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Friday the United States has assured Japan of the safety in deploying a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to a US Navy base in Japan for the first time.

    Machimura said the Japanese government appreciates the US posture in assuring that it will continue to maintain such safety as it had shown in the past years when its nuclear-powered vesselshave docked at Japanese ports.

    Meanwhile, Japanese Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono said at a separate press conference that, from the viewpoint of Japan's national security and the security of the Asian region,it is extremely meaningful for a carrier with such high capabilities to use Japan as its homeport.

    Ono also called for the Japanese public's understanding that nuclear-powered carriers are safe and that the stationing of such a vessel does not contradict Japan's non-nuclear principles because the principles refer to nuclear weapons, not to nuclear power generation.

    The officials' remarks come after the US government announcement Thursday that Japan and the United States have agreedto have the US Navy station a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan for the first time, to replace the conventional carrier Kitty Hawk at the naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture in 2008. Enditem