TOKYO, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga said that Japan will withdraw its non-combat troops deployed in southern Iraq at the same time that British and Australian troops are pulled out, Kyodo News agency reported Tuesday.

    Nukaga told the United States officially for the first time Monday in Washington that Japan will pull out its 600 ground troops from the southern Iraqi town of Samawah when British and Australian forces withdraw their forces, the agency quoted a Japanese official as saying.

    But Nukaga, speaking at a top U.S.-Japan security meeting of defense and foreign ministers, noted that Japan intends to keep its Air Self-Defense Force unit in Kuwait to continue its mission to airlift supplies to Iraq with C-130 transport planes.

    As for factors in deciding the pullout, Nukaga cited the political process, transfer of security roles to Iraq, movements of British, Australian and other multinational forces, and reconstruction work, Kyodo News said. Enditem