Japan completes troop withdrawal from Iraq

The last batch of Japanese troops arrived in Kuwait from southern Iraq today, completing Japan's biggest and most dangerous overseas mission since the Second World War, the Defence Agency said.

About 220 troops touched down at Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base from the southern Iraqi city of Samawah on C-130 transport air planes, the agency said in statement.

The contingent was the last of about 600 Japanese soldiers stationed in Samawah to distribute water and assist in other humanitarian tasks.

The batch is scheduled to return to Japan in about a week, a defence agency spokesman said.

Japanese Defence Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga has been in Kuwait since yesterday, and was scheduled to give a press conference later today.

Japan's mission to southern Iraq was the country's largest military deployment and first to a combat zone since the Second World War, and signalled the country's eagerness to play a diplomatic and military role more commensurate with its economic might.