Japan May Step Up Aid to Gulf : Diplomacy: Tokyo’s foreign minister plans to meet with Syria’s president today.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama is scheduled to arrive in Damascus today for talks with Syrian President Hafez Assad that could include discussions of Japanese help in transporting a Syrian armored brigade to the Saudi Arabian desert, a Japanese government spokesman said Sunday.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu concluded two days of talks with the Saudi government and flew on to Oman for the last leg of a five-day tour of the Middle East. It is the first visit by a Japanese prime minister to the region in 12 years.

At the conclusion of the first day of talks here, the spokesman said that Kaifu agreed to consider extending additional aid to Arab countries that have sent troops to Saudi Arabia, Syria being one of them.

Saudi King Fahd, reportedly irritated at Japan’s slowness in responding to the two-month-old gulf crisis, kept Kaifu waiting four hours Saturday before the two leaders sat down for two hours of talks.

Japanese presidential spokesman Shigeo Takenaka said the two leaders agreed on the necessity of Iraq’s withdrawing from Kuwait, restoring Kuwait’s legitimate government and releasing foreign nationals held in Iraq and Kuwait.

King Fahd told the Japanese leader it was “important . . . that (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein realize that withdrawal from Kuwait of his troops is a prerequisite for restoring peace,” Takenaka said, “but he was afraid that Saddam had not come to that realization yet.”

Kaifu agreed to consider extending aid to such countries as Syria, Bangladesh, Morocco and Pakistan that have committed troops to the multinational force in Saudi Arabia but are not included in Japan’s pledged $4-billion crisis aid package, according to Takenaka.

“We do not have a firm position on this yet,” the Japanese spokesman added. “We know we have to expand, perhaps, the scope of the countries when we consider additional financial cooperation to countries affected by the crisis, but we haven’t yet framed a position (about) which countries should be included.”

A senior Saudi government official said that Saudi Arabia has been impatient about Japan’s delay in contributing to the crisis effort but added that the Saudis are satisfied that Japan is solidly in line with most of the rest of the world in opposing Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.

“I think Japan is able to put forward more than it has given until now,” Takenaka said. “We would always like to have more. But there are some limits on Japan’s actions because of the constitutional situation. After they have cleared these limits, I think they will have acted in the right way.”

Japan’s constitution, drafted after World War II, forbids the country to use force as a means of settling international disputes and, as it is currently interpreted, prohibits dispatching Japanese troops abroad.

Kaifu said he is introducing a bill that would allow him to dispatch an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 noncombat troops to the gulf effort as part of a U.N.-sanctioned “peace cooperation corps.” The corps would include people from both the public and private sectors, drawing mainly from noncombat army troops, police and firefighters.

However, a Japanese government spokesman who asked not to be identified said that debate over the bill is likely to open up the whole issue of Japan’s military forces and how they can be deployed, and that it is possible that the issue of dispatching actual combat troops to the gulf will be discussed.

“There is government consensus that they (military forces) can participate, but in what form?” the spokesman said. There is likely to be vigorous debate on Kaifu’s proposal, scheduled to be submitted to a special session of Parliament on Friday. The Japan Socialist Party and other opposition groups strongly oppose sending military personnel overseas.

In its present $4-billion aid package, Japan has pledged to provide $2 billion in aid to the countries most seriously affected economically by the gulf crisis--Jordan, Turkey and Egypt--and $2 billion to support the multinational force in Saudi Arabia, a contribution that includes help in transporting food, water and medical supplies, support equipment to troops, medical cooperation and a contribution of $900,000 to gulf countries to help defray such costs as chartering aircraft and ships.

Japan is dispatching a 100-member medical team to Saudi Arabia; 17 doctors, nurses and technicians have already arrived.