Pyongyang has announced it will launch a communications satellite over Japan in early April, while Washington and its Asian allies suspect the communist regime is really testing a long-range ballistic missile.

Tokyo has warned it will shoot it down if it threatens to fall on its territory -- something North Korea says it would regard as an act of war.

Various media reports Tuesday quoted an unidentified Japanese senior government official as doubting such an intercept would work, reportedly saying: "You cannot shoot a pistol bullet with a pistol."

Asked about the comment at a media briefing, Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said: "I do no think that."

"We have worked thoroughly to prepare the system," he said.

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone admitted the difficulty of shooting down a flying missile, particularly when it comes unannounced.

"I guess it is true that it is difficult," he told reporters.

"Our country has never really intercepted a missile. We would not know in what way, how, and to where a missile would be headed.

"What's important, I think, is that we do our best until the very last minute so that it would not happen," Nakasone said, referring to diplomatic efforts to discourage North Korea from launching a rocket.

Washington and Tokyo have worked jointly on a missile defence shield, using land- and sea-based missiles, against a possible attack from North Korea, which fired a missile over Japan in 1998 and tested an atom bomb in 2006.

The US government announced a successful experimental missile interception last week. But in November, Japan said a shootdown had failed. A Japanese test in September was successful.

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