TOKYO - JAPAN on Friday ordered an end to its air mission in Iraq, a historic but deeply unpopular military deployment for the pacifist nation.

Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada instructed air force planes flying goods and personnel into Iraq in support of the United Nations and US-led coalition to withdraw by the end of this year, his ministry said.

The government first announced in September that it would bring back the planes as the security situation in Iraq had improved.

The mission, which was deeply unpopular with the Japanese public, is Japan's last remaining military operation in Iraq after the country ended a landmark ground deployment in 2006.

'Japan will continue to support Iraq through measures such as yen-denominated loans and technological cooperation,' Prime Minister Taro Aso said in a statement.

The government is now expected to focus on extending an Indian Ocean naval mission providing refuelling support to the US-led military operations in Afghanistan, which the opposition is trying to block.

Some 210 Japanese troops and airplanes operating in Iraq are stationed in Kuwait. Domestic legislation allowing the mission expires in July next year.

The troops were sent to Iraq by then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi after the 2003 US-led invasion, marking the first time that Japan deployed armed forces to a country where fighting was underway since 1945.

Japan has been officially pacifist since defeat in World War II.

Mr Koizumi and other members of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) argue that Japan must do more to ensure global security to win respect on the world stage.

The ground mission ended in 2006 when the relatively safe area where Japanese forces were on a reconstruction mission was handed over to Iraqi control.

Japan's opposition, which has been making gains, is staunchly against the missions in Iraq and the Indian Ocean. It briefly forced a halt to the Indian Ocean deployment last year, saying Japan should not be part of 'American wars'. -- AFP