TOKYO (AFP) - Tokyo and Washington signed a pact Friday to prevent outflows of Japanese missile parts to conflict-hit nations as the two allies jointly develop a missile defense system, a news agency reported.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and U.S. ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer signed the deal amid fears that North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile, the Jiji Press said.

The Japanese government last December decided to start in the current fiscal year to March 2007 a joint development of the next-generation Standard Missile 3 system with the United States.

Japan in 1967 banned arms exports to countries that were communist, under UN sanctions or engaged in international conflict. In 1976 it went further, barring all arms exports regardless of the destination.

However, Japan ended the ban last year and said it would decide on exports on a case-by-case basis. The move was designed to allow exports to its close ally, the United States, with which Japan is building missile defenses against communist neighbor North Korea.

But there have been growing concerns since then about possible outflows of those missile parts via the United States to countries involved in armed conflicts.

The envisioned pact would thus require the United States to obtain prior consent from Japan to export Japanese-made SM3 parts to other countries, Jiji said.