Iraq Crisis:Dont spoil Olympics, says Japan

The Japanese government plans to ask the United States and Iraq to observe a United Nations-backed "Olympic truce" during the Nagano Winter Olympic Games which start tomorrow, its Foreign Ministyry said.

Earlier this week, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on all UN member nations to observe a truce during the Olympics. The White House said this week it was aware that any attack on Iraq during the Games would break the traditional Olympic truce, but said the United States government must make its own decisions. - Reuters, Tokyo