london -- Japan's Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi has praised Iran for supporting the peace process in Afghanistan and welcomed Tehran's instrumental role in helping to develop the Kyoto environmental protocol.

Speaking in London ahead of her visit to Tehran, Kawaguchi said that she would encourage the Iranian government to seek a new relationship with the outside world.

"We have had good communications with Iran and I think that it is important Iran is not isolated. We would like to continue to have a dialogue with Iran," she said in an interview with the ****Financial Times**** published Tuesday.

The Japanese foreign minister held talks Monday with her British counterpart Jack Straw and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in her first visit to the UK since taking office on January 31.

According to the Foreign Office, Straw spoke with Kawaguchi about her forthcoming visits this week to Afghanistan and Iran as well as on the Middle East peace process.

The **Financial Times** suggested that the Japanese foreign minister's visit to Tehran had received the "informal blessing of the U.S. Administration."