"The mission of defense is devoted to the total security and safety of total Japan as a whole. So this is very important. This should not be an agency but should be a ministry," defense chief Yoshinori Ono said, saying the upgrade was one of his goals for 2005.

Ono is director general of the Defense Agency which is under direct control of the Cabinet Office, unlike the powerful finance and foreign ministries which can propose bills on their own to the parliament, called the Diet.

"We could not submit laws or anything to the Diet in the name of Mr Ono, in the name of the director-general of the defense agency," Ono said.

The constitution imposed by the United States after World War II forbids Japan from having a military or using force in international affairs.

In a historic breakthrough, Japan has deployed 550 troops -- officially called the Self-Defense Forces -- in Iraq to provide humanitarian assistance, the first time since 1945 that Japanese soldiers have been in a country at war.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said this week he was not opposed to turning the Defense Agency into a full-fledged government ministry and that his Liberal Democratic Party would unveil ideas later this year on amending the constitution.

Before the defeat in World War II, Japan ran the army ministry, which included the air force, and the navy ministry, which were both on a par with the finance and foreign ministries.

Given Japan's wartime aggression in Asia, upgrading the agency's status to the ministry level could raise concerns among Asian countries, notably China and the Koreas.

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