Japan, UK agree on N Korea call

By William Horsley
BBC World affairs correspondent

It is Mr Abe's first trip outside Asia since taking office four months ago

Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has held talks with his British counterpart Tony Blair in London.

The two leaders have agreed on the need for more efforts to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Mr Blair said he fully supported Japan's efforts to win a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

This is Mr Abe's first trip outside Asia since he took office. Its aim is to strengthen Japan's network of friendships with European countries.

The perceived threat to Japan rose sharply last October, when North Korea carried out its first nuclear weapons test.

Mr Abe repeated a catchphrase of his leadership - that he will make Japan more diplomatically assertive.

Fulsome support

He told a news conference that just before boarding the plane for London he had officially raised the status of Japan's defence agency to a full ministry as a sign of the country's self-confidence.

Japan cannot tolerate North Korea owning nuclear weapons nor the means to deliver them Shinzo Abe Transcript of BBC interview with Mr Abe Political 'blue blood'

He declared that he and Mr Blair saw eye-to-eye on the need to apply the necessary pressures to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.

In a joint statement, the two leaders promised stronger counter-proliferation efforts and called on Iran to suspend all its uranium enrichment as required by the UN Security Council.

Mr Blair voiced fulsome support for Japan's ongoing bid to be granted a permanent seat on the Security Council, calling it "much overdue".

On Mr Abe's four-nation tour, which will also take in Germany, Belgium and France, he will visit the Nato headquarters in Brussels to try to build on the newly-agreed concept of enhanced co-operation between the western alliance and like-minded states in other parts of the world, such as Japan.