Bush to meet new Japanese PM

United States Government officials have announced that President George W Bush will meet the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, at the end of June.

The two will meet at the Camp David presidential retreat, where they are expected to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues.

Mr Bush has expressed his commitment to improving ties with Tokyo, but correspondents say he has been frustrated by political and economic instability in Japan, as well as by an incident earlier this year in which a US submarine rammed and sunk a Japanese trawler off Hawaii, killing nine people.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service