US Vice President Dick Cheney began a week of Asian diplomacy yesterday, meeting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to lend support to his vow to keep troops in Iraq despite the kidnapping of three Japanese civilians that has shocked Japan.

Grim developments in Iraq, including the kidnapping of seven Chinese on the eve of Cheney?s visit to Beijing yesterday, threatened to overshadow Cheney?s week-long trip to Asia.

The hostage-taking has created a major test for Koizumi, who already faces a divided country over his decision to send about 550 troops to Iraq on a non-combat mission.

Washington fears any wavering by Japan could result in a broader retreat by coalition partners from the worst violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago.

In a brief session with US embassy staff before meeting Koizumi, Cheney hailed the state of US-Japanese relations and ?the growth in our cooperation? on economic and security matters.

Hours earlier, Japan put three transport planes on stand-by in Kuwait ready to airlift the hostages out of Iraq if their captors freed them, but the country ? and Cheney?s delegation ? remained on tenterhooks awaiting news of their fate.

Seven South Koreans were taken hostage last week but released. Cheney will visit Seoul from Thursday as part of his trip, postponed last year because of the start of the Iraq war.

Cheney is one of the architects of the Iraq war and once predicted that US troops would be ?greeted as liberators?. He has kept a low profile since arriving in Tokyo at the weekend and has yet to comment publicly on the kidnappings.

China, regarded as a friend by Iraq?s former Baathist government, objected to the US-led invasion of Iraq without UN backing, but it pledged $24 million for rebuilding the country at a donor conference in Madrid last year. The hostage incidents greatly complicated the US vice president?s visit to the region, putting him on the defensive and overshadowing economic issues and efforts to eliminate North Korea?s nuclear weapons programme.

Won?t bow to pressurre

Officials travelling with the vice president in Japan said the US government was playing a role behind-the-scenes ? both on the ground in Iraq and through other channels ? to help free the Japanese hostages.

?He (Cheney) remains in close contact with the White House and other senior administration officials. We are monitoring closely the developments in Iraq and elsewhere,? said Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems.

Washington has been heartened by Koizumi?s response to the crisis. The hostages were expected to be freed Sunday but their fate remains unknown.

In his meeting with Koizumi, Cheney was to deliver a message of appreciation for Japan?s commitment of manpower and money to the Iraq operation, his aides said.

He will also tell the Japanese leader that Washington is committed to a June 30 deadline for transferring sovereignty to Iraqis despite renewed violence.

The Iraq mission is Japan?s riskiest military operation since World War Two and a major shift away from the purely defensive military stance Tokyo adopted after its defeat in the war.

In addition to Iraq, Cheney is expected to press Japan to reopen its markets to US beef, banned three months ago because of the first US case of mad cow disease.

In Beijing, he is expected to discuss thorny currency policy and market-access disputes.

A senior administration official said ending North Korea?s nuclear programme would also be ?an important subject not only in Beijing, but also in Tokyo and Seoul.?

<B>Adam Entous</B>