TOKYO, JAPAN - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday met Japan's new centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama during a visit centred on sensitive questions of military cooperation.

Hatoyama, whose government took power five weeks ago, wants to review an agreement on US military bases in Japan, but Gates on Tuesday made clear Washington does not want to renegotiate the pact.

The United States has some 47,000 troops based in Japan, more than half of them on southern Okinawa island, where residents have been angered by aircraft noise, accidents and crimes committed by service members.

Hatoyama has said he wants to review a 2006 pact under which an airbase would be relocated from a crowded urban area to a coastal area of Okinawa by 2014 and suggested the base should instead be moved off the island altogether.

But Gates has ruled out major revisions to the deal, saying on Tuesday: "We think we need to progress with the agreement that was negotiated."

Gates' two-day visit is the first by a member of US President Barack Obama's cabinet since Japan's new government took power, signalling that, while it values the US alliance, it wants a less subservient relationship.

Greeting Gates, Hatoyama said Wednesday his government cherishes the alliance and added that "under the current circumstances of instability in Asia, it's all the more important to strengthen our alliance further".

Washington is anxious to secure assurances on the Okinawa base deal before Obama's scheduled Japan visit on November 12-13 - but Japan's government has signalled it will take more time to review the issue.

Hatoyama's government, which in opposition criticised Japan abetting "American wars", has also announced it would end in January an Indian Ocean naval refuelling mission in support of the Afghanistan war effort.

Hatoyama's government has said it is planning more civilian aid instead.

After his courtesy call to Hatoyama, Gates was due to meet his Japanese counterpart, Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa. He was due to visit Seoul later on Wednesday and Thursday, for talks on the nuclear-armed communist regime North Korea, before heading to Slovakia for a NATO meeting of defence ministers on Friday.