KADENA - THOUSANDS of residents of Japan's southern island of Okinawa Saturday staged a protest against the presence of the US military on the eve of a major rally against a controversial airbase.

Some 2,500 people living in Kadena town, which already hosts a large US Air Force base that frequently provokes complaints over the noise of jet planes flying day and night, protested a government proposal the city accept another US military installation.

The demonstration came a day before Okinawans were to stage a major rally against a 2006 Japan-US military agreement ahead of US President Barack Obama's first visit to Tokyo.

Under the pact, Tokyo's then conservative government agreed with Washington that the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base, which Okinawa has long demanded be moved out of a residential area, be relocated to the island's coastal Camp Schwab site.

New Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama - who swept to power in a landslide and has vowed a less subservient relationship with Washington - said during the election campaign he would review the agreement and wanted the base moved off the island or even out of the country.

But under pressure from the United States, which has demanded Japan honour the pact, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada proposed the Futenma operations be merged with the already existing air base in Kadena - a suggestion that has angered Kadena residents. -- AFP