Japan, US, Australia to hold first summit next month

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan, Australia and the United States will hold their first trilateral summit meeting on September 8 to strengthen security ties, a Japanese newspaper reported Friday.

The first trilateral summit will be held on the sidelines of the September Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney, the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun paper reported, citing unnamed government sources.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his Australian counterpart John Howard and US President George W. Bush will discuss North Korea's nuclear disarmament and China's military build-up, it said.

Japan will propose holding the trilateral summit talks regularly, the Yomiuri said.

In March, Abe signed a security pact with Australia, Japan's first such agreement with any country besides the United States, its main ally.

Japan and Australia are both close US allies which supported the invasion of Iraq.

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