Sheikh Jaber, responding to questions about Washington's sale of arms to Gulf allies, said "Kuwait has signed deals, not for airplanes, but for materiel such as ships and Patriot missiles."

He did not give any further details.

In July, the United States announced plans for a series of arms deals worth at least 20 billion dollars (14.6 billion euros) with Saudi Arabia and five other oil-rich Gulf states.

The deals are aimed at shoring up US allies in the Middle East and countering "a more aggressive Iran", as one administration official put it.

The plan would also provide billions of dollars in new US aid to Israel and to Egypt.

Kuwait is a close ally of Washington. Serving as a forward base to troops involved in the US-led invasion of neighbouring Iraq in 2003, it remains a staging post for troops and munitions, and hosts around 15,000 US personnel.

Even so, Sheikh Jaber reiterated that the government would not allow Kuwait to be used for any attack on Iran following US warnings over its nuclear programme.

US installs missile-tracking system in Japan
US forces deployed a mobile missile-tracking station in Japan for the first time Friday, officials said, as part of efforts to defend against a potential attack from North Korea.

The Joint Tactical Ground Station was being set up at the Misawa base in Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Japan's most populous island of Honshu.

It is the first time the US military has deployed the mobile unit in Japan, although one is already in South Korea, said Yutaka Shirasawa, an official at Japan's defence ministry.

The system consists of a vehicle equipped with three satellite antennas and information-processing equipment, which is meant to send news of any incoming missile to the US military and Japanese defence ministry.

It will be operated by 18 US servicepeople from an army base in the western US state of Colorado, Shirasawa said, adding the local government was informed of the deployment Thursday.

Tokyo and Washington launched work on a missile defence shield for Japan after North Korea shocked the world in 1998 by firing a long-range missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific allies have continued to work on developing the shield despite ongoing negotiations with North Korea, which has agreed to end its nuclear drive in return for aid and diplomatic benefits.

But local authorities and media had criticised the deployment, saying they were not sufficiently informed.

"The US military might not be able to disclose military secrets. However, we should not just let it be," the local To-o Nippo newspaper said in an editorial before the deployment.

"The mayor must press the US military and the (Japanese) government to give us detailed explanation."

In March, Japan for the first time installed Patriot surface-to-air missile interceptors in the Tokyo area.

The United States last year installed Japan's first anti-missile system on the southern island of Okinawa, the hub of the 40,000 US troops in Japan.

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