TOKYO -- The United States has not formally asked Japan to beef up its military support for the U.S.-led operation in Afghanistan and Tokyo has made no decision on whether to do so, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said on Monday.

"Japan feels that it is important that the weapons of mass destruction, or terrorism, be dealt with, all countries coordinating our efforts," Kawaguchi told Reuters.

"We have been making efforts and we will continue to do so as long as there is a need," she said.

"But we have not been asked by the United States to beef up -- there is no formal request from the United States," she added. "If there is a need to beef up our fight against terrorism, if the international situation develops in such a way so that there is a need, yes," Kawaguchi said. But she added: "We would have to know if that is really the case."

Japan's ***Asahi Shimbun*** newspaper said on Sunday that Japan had decided to extend by six months its dispatch of naval vessels to the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.

***Asahi*** also said Washington had asked Tokyo to bolster its activities beyond refuelling U.S. and British ships to include refuelling other countries' naval vessels and dispatching destroyers equipped with high-tech Aegis missile-hunting systems -- a request that could spark a heated debate in Japan.

Japan, keen to avoid a rerun of a 1991 diplomatic embarrassment when it failed to send even a token military force to the Persian Gulf War, last year enacted a law allowing its military to go abroad to back up the U.S.-led strikes in Afghanistan.

But Tokyo refrained from dispatching Aegis-equipped ships after opposition lawmakers and some in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party argued that doing so would violate Japan's post-war pacifist constitution.

The decision disappointed some U.S. officials. --------------------------------------------------