Asia-Pacific

Rice to cacel trip to China, Japan, S. Korea

(Kyodo)
Updated: 2006-07-20 11:03

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is considering canceling a trip to Japan, China and South Korea planned for next week as she is expected to make an urgent trip to the Middle East due to the crisis in Lebanon, sources familiar with Japan-U.S. relations said Wednesday.

But Rice will attend, as scheduled, an Asian security meeting hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the ASEAN Regional Forum, on July 28 in Kuala Lumpur, the sources said.

Rice's visits to Japan, China and South Korea to discuss North Korea's missile launches July 5 were slated to start next Monday and run through July 27, when she was to head to Malaysia.

If her trip to the three Northeast Asian countries is indeed canceled, she will most probably fly to Malaysia directly from the Middle East, according to the sources.

Though her itinerary in the Middle East, including when and which country to go, has yet to be announced, Rice is widely believed to go there as early as this weekend.