The change was approved by the government and ruling coalition and will be announced on Friday after being rubber-stamped by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet, the reports said.

In a statement the government will vow to maintain its prudent stance on the ban to maintain the ideal of being a "pacifist nation," the Asahi Shimbun and Tokyo Shimbun newspapers said in their evening editions.

But the new policy will exempt from the ban a joint missile defence system under study by Japan and the United States subject to "strict control," the reports said.

The government will also examine on a case-by-case basis the possible exemption from the ban of other weapons to be jointly developed by the two allies or to be used to fight terrorism and sea piracy, according to the statement published in the dailies.

No officials were immediately available to comment on the reports.

Japan and the United States have been engaged in joint technological research on a missile defence system since 1999, a year after North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile over Japan into the Pacific.

Under the exemption, Japan would be able to export parts of missiles to be built for intercepting incoming ballistic missiles

The review of the ban, which has been in place since 1967, will be announced along with Japan's new basic defense strategy, a set of guidelines which serve as a basis for defence planners.

The ban has been part of Japan's pacifist posture since its defeat in World War II.

Japan has adhered to a defense-only security policy as the US-inspired war-renouncing constitution of 1947 bans the use of force in settling international disputes.

The country on Thursday extended the deployment in Iraq of its military, known as the Self-Defense Forces, which is on a non-combat reconstruction mission.

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