Washington and Tokyo say they will soon reach an agreement on the status of a controversial US military base on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

"We said that we would reach a conclusion (on Marine Corps Futenma Air base) as soon as possible," Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said on Wednesday, following a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday.

The two officials who met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Singapore told reporters that a new ministerial-level working group will discuss the issue.

Futenma Air base, currently located in a crowded urban area in a populated city in Okinawa, may not be relocated to a coastal area as previously agreed, but moved off Okinawa or even out of Japan, said the Japanese Prime Minister.

The presence of US troops on the island has repeatedly sparked anger among locals. Last week, thousands of people staged a massive rally to protest the presence of US troops in Okinawa.

Residents view the US base as a source of crime, noise, pollution and accidents. One tragic case which flared outrage was the rape of a schoolgirl by three US servicemen in 1995.

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