• TIN TỨC
• VIDEO

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed to Hawaii on Monday for talks aimed at mending cracks in the 50-year-old US-Japan security alliance, the first leg of a new Asia tour.

Following her two-night stop in Hawaii, Clinton will travel to Papua New Guinea before winding up her 10-day tour in New Zealand and Australia, where security in the Pacific and beyond will also be high on the agenda.

In Honolulu on Tuesday, her aides said, Clinton will urge her Japanese counterpart Katsuya Okada to help end a row over a US airbase and clarify Japan's stand over an alliance that has underpinned security in Asia for 50 years.

A file photo of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington January 6, 2010.

In Tokyo, Yomiuri newspaper and other Japanese reports said on Sunday that Clinton and Okada will make final arrangements for a statement stressing the crucial contribution of their alliance to global peace.

"The governments are preparing for the statement, with which Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and President (Barack) Obama will celebrate the 50th anniversary and commit to further deepen the alliance," Japanese Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said, according to Jiji Press.

The security treaty, signed on January 19, 1960, has formed the bedrock of the post-war Japan-US alliance, under which pacifist Japan relies on a massive US military presence to guarantee its security.

Tokyo's relations with its most important ally have hit turbulence over the controversial Futenma air base, which Hatoyama has suggested should be moved off the southern island of Okinawa or even outside Japan altogether.

The centre-left Hatoyama, who took power in September, has pledged to review past agreements on the US military presence, including plans to shift Futenma within Okinawa, and to deal with Washington on a more "equal" basis.

The stand has raised questions about the future of the alliance.

Joseph Nye, a former senior Pentagon official, said in a commentary in the New York Times last week that Washington should proceed carefully on the base dispute.

"This is an issue with a long back story that could create a serious rift with one of our most crucial allies," he warned.

"Some in Washington want to play hardball with the new Japanese government. But that would be unwise."

Kurt Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state for Asia and Pacific affairs, said Clinton and Okada will also discuss mutual security concerns over the nuclear ambitions of both North Korea and Iran.

They will also talk about China's rising power, as well as the military junta in Myanmar.

Clinton will meet with the US military's Pacific Command and visit the USS Arizona Memorial, which commemorates the Americans who died in the Japanese surprise attack on December 7, 1941 that triggered war with the United States.

She will arrive in Port Moresby on Thursday to discuss economic development and efforts to combat climate change. It will be the first visit to Papua New Guinea by a US secretary of state since Madeleine Albright visited in 1998.

On January 15, Clinton will travel to Auckland, New Zealand.

She travels to January 17 to Melbourne and Canberra, Australia.

In Canberra, Clinton and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates will hold the 25th Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations with their counterparts Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Defence Minister John Faulkner.

Highlighting the region's growing international clout, it will be Clinton's fourth tour of Asia since she became secretary of state one year ago.

AFP/de