WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military will move around 8,000 marines from Okinawa to Guam by 2012 as part of an agreement on the realignment of US forces there, a Pentagon spokesman said. ADVERTISEMENT The number of marines to be relocated is about 1,000 more than the Pentagon originally estimated when it signed an agreement on October 29 with Japan regarding the US military presence in Japan, said Lieutenant Colonel Brian Maka.
"Upon further analysis, it looks like ... roughly the number is going to be about 8,000 (marines)," he said.
The United States estimates the move will cost around 10 billion dollars, and wants Japan to pick up 75 percent of it, he said.
The move also will involve dependents of the marines, but Maka did not know how many. He said plans call for completing the move to Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, by 2012.
The new estimates were discussed in US-Japanese military talks in Hawaii last weekend, he said.
Although the United States and Japan agreed on a framework for the force realignments in October, they are still negotiating the details of how they are to be implemented.
Any changes are highly controversial in Okinawa, which hosts half the 40,000 US troops stationed in Japan.
Opposition to the US military presence has remained strong since the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by US service members.
On Sunday, residents of the western Okinawa city of Iwakuni overwhelmingly voted "no" in a non-binding referendum to plans to station more US military aircraft there as part of the relocation plan.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday ruled out changes to the plan despite the vote
