TEHRAN A Japanese newspaper has revealed that another American military personnel has been arrested for stealing an automobile.

Japanese daily ***Yomiuri*** said the U.S. airman David Candle, was suspected of stealing a car worth around U.S.$5,000 on Sunday and was arrested while driving the car.

The arrest comes as two U.S. servicemen in Okinawa were turned over to Japanese prosecutors Sunday on separate vandalism charges, three days after a U.S. airman was charged with the rape of a local woman.

The incidents added fuel to antipathy among Okinawans toward a huge U.S. military presence on the subtropical Japanese island, ahead of a lightening visit to Japan by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday and Tuesday.

"The two suspects were separately sent to the district Public Prosecutors' Office this afternoon," Okinawa City police duty officer Shinichi Nagahama was quoted by AFP as saying.

The two were arrested red-handed early Saturday.

Fernando Blanes, a 22-year-old airman stationed at Kadena Air Base, was apprehended for setting fire to a car. He later told police he could not remember the incident because he was drunk at the time.

In a separate incident, a 19-year-old marine stationed at the Futenma Base was arrested for damaging a motor bike in Uechi, police said.

He allegedly pushed over the bike, destroying its muffler. The marine's name was withheld because of his age.

On Thursday Japanese prosecutors charged Timothy Woodland, a 24-year-old U.S. staff sergeant, with the rape of a Japanese woman in the parking lot of a shopping and entertainment emporium outside the sprawling Kadena Air Base on June 29. Woodland is also attached to Kadena.

His case has provoked fresh anger at the U.S. military presence and threatened to sour Japan-U.S. relations as U.S. authorities dragged their feet in handing over Woodland before his indictment.

Under the agreement governing the presence of U.S. troops in Japan -- the status of forces agreement -- American commanders do not have to hand over servicemen suspected of crimes until they are indicted by Japanese prosecutors.

But following the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old Okinawa girl by three U.S. servicemen, Washington agreed to give "sympathetic consideration" to any request by Tokyo for an immediate handover of military personnel suspected of serious crimes such as rape or murder.

The vandalism cases did not lead to a diplomatic tangle as both the suspects were caught on the spot and immediately taken into custody by Japanese police.

Woodland's arrest followed police questioning of witnesses. Okinawan police obtained an arrest warrant for Woodland on July 2, but it was not until July 6 that the U.S. agreed to hand him over for arrest because of concerns over the way he would be treated.