Japan plans to conduct military exercises to defend Tokyo from a missile attack, according to a Japanese newspaper.

The maneuvers will be carried out at several sites around Japan's capital based on the US-developed Patriot PAC-3 missile system, the Nikkei business newspaper reported courtesy of an anonymous sources.

No missiles will actually be fired, it said.

Rather, the drill will assess the best way to move the PAC-3s around the city, test tracking systems and identify buildings and topographic features that present obstacles to the deployment.

Japan and the United States held a regional ballistic missile defense drill in July, with another round of maneuvers scheduled for November.

It was not clear if the PAC-3 drill will be conducted as part of the joint November exercises.

Defense Ministry officials could not immediately be contacted for comment.

Japan and the US have been jointly developing an advanced missile defense system in 2006. Japan deployed its first Patriot missiles earlier this year, and plans to introduce SM-3 interceptors on its destroyers in the next few years, starting in December.

On Friday, the US military deployed a mobile missile-tracking system in northern Japan as part of a bilateral security treaty.

Meanwhile, Russia is concerned that the Japanese-US missile defense plan could be an effort to preserve military superiority, Moscow's foreign minister said in a news interview published on Saturday.

"We oppose the construction of missile defense systems whose purpose is to ensure military superiority," Sergey Lavrov said, ahead of a visit to Japan later this month.

Agencies

(China Daily 10/15/2007 page9)