Japanese vessels have refuelled coalition jets and ships under a law, which expires on November 1, allowing the officially pacifist nation to take part in the US-led "war on terror."

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party approved a new bill to continue the mission, a party official said. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's cabinet was due to give its formal backing later in the day to send the bill to parliament.

In a compromise, the new bill would permit Japan to give oil and water only to coalition forces on patrols and other "war on terror" activities on the Indian Ocean -- not for combat operations on the ground.

It follows accusations, denied by both Tokyo and Washington, that Japanese fuel was diverted to US operations in Iraq.

The new bill also authorises the mission for only one year instead of two years as originally planned.

But the opposition, which won control of parliament's less-powerful upper house in July, says that Japan should not be involved in "American wars."

Conservative Shinzo Abe resigned as prime minister last month, citing his failure to extend the mission. The opposition has also pledged to scuttle Fukuda's policy agenda until he calls early general elections.

The opposition has not officially rejected the compromise bill, saying it wants to debate the issue once the cabinet approves it.

But Kenji Yamaoka, a senior lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, attacked the new bill for eliminating a requirement that parliament approve the dispatch of every additional ship to the Indian Ocean.

"They eliminated the parliamentary approval because they don't want trouble in the upper house," Yamaoka told reporters. "It shows extreme ignorance about parliamentary debate."

The United States has warned that relations would suffer with Japan unless its close ally renews the mission.

A recent poll found that while support was only lukewarm for the naval mission, nearly two-thirds of voters wanted the opposition to compromise with the government.

Japan has been officially pacifist since its defeat in World War II, making all military operations controversial.

The ruling coalition enjoys an overwhelming majority in the lower house, which can overrule the opposition-controlled upper house. But the upper house could stall the bill for up to 60 days.

Sadakazu Tanigaki, policy chief for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said the government left open the option of forcing through the bill.

"The constitution allows us to pass legisation with two-thirds approval" in the lower house, Tanigaki said. "I have no intention of ruling that out. But we need to be cautious about actually doing so."

With the parliament bracing for a gruelling debate, senior Liberal Democratic lawmaker Gen Nakatani outraged the opposition on Sunday by saying that only "terrorists" would oppose the Indian Ocean mission.

Nakatani, who was defence chief when Japan first prepared the mission, apologised on Wednesday.

"If people took my comment to mean that I was referring to Japanese people who oppose it as terrorists, that is certainly not what I intended. Not at all," Nakatani said. "I'm sorry that my comment caused misunderstanding."

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