The Okinawa Police Department arrested lance corporal Jose Torres, who allegedly beat and raped a 19-year-old woman on a street after taking her out of a restaurant in the early hours of May 25, the officials said.

The arrest was made hours after the United States agreed to hand over the marine to Japanese authorities when members of the Japan-US Joint Committee on the bilateral security alliance held a meeting in Tokyo.

The handover "was the result of the appropriate decision made at the Japan-US Joint Committee," Okinawa Governor Keiichi Inamine said in a statement. "I hope the case will be settled as quickly as possible."

Japanese politicians immediately voiced their dismay after the latest incident likely to sour relations between the large US garrison and local residents was reported, and called for the marine to be transferred to Japanese custody.

Local police obtained a court warrant for the arrest of Torres on Monday.

Under a long-standing agreement on the legal status of US forces in Japan the US military is not required to hand over to Japanese police criminal suspects among its members until they are indicted.

But the US side pledged to consider the request on the basis of a 1995 bilateral agreement that committed Washington to give "sympathetic consideration" to the immediate transfer of suspects in serious crimes, such as murder and rape.

The accord was hammered out after the gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three US servicemen early in 1995 that sparked massive protests against the huge US military presence on Okinawa.

According to press reports, Torres, who has been held in custody at a detention centre at the US Marines' Camp Hansen, has admitted to having consensual sex with the woman.

The island is strategically located within striking distance of the Korean peninsula and China, and hosts about two-thirds of the 47,000 US troops in Japan.

A string of crimes committed by US soldiers, as well as disputes over the ownership and use of the land on which US military facilities sit, have made Okinawa residents reluctant hosts.

WAR.WIRE