Tokyo is considering sending Self-Defense Forces personnel to the headquarters of the international security mission in Afghanistan to aid the war-torn country, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Wednesday.

"The possibility is not zero, but (the SDF dispatch) is not at all decided yet," Kitazawa said about the plan to send SDF liaison officers to join the International Security Assistance Force. "The Defense Ministry has floated the idea as Japan's possible contribution."

Kitazawa said he presented the idea during a meeting with other ministers concerned last Friday that involved Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and National Public Safety Commission Chairman Hiroshi Nakai among others, but added the Cabinet as a whole will make a final decision.

His proposal, however, was immediately denied by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, exposing once again a discord within the government on security policies. Cabinet ministers have already made inconsistent comments on the issue of relocating a U.S. airfield in Okinawa.

Hatoyama told the House of Representatives Budget Committee on Wednesday that Japan's support for Afghanistan will center on civilian aid. "I don't have any plans to dispatch SDF members," the premier said.

Those providing support for Afghanistan will be sent "only to areas where their safety can be ensured," Hatoyama added.

Hirano, meanwhile, said at a regular press conference that the government "has not been studying" a plan to send SDF officers to the ISAF. He also said he has not heard the plan from Kitazawa.

The ISAF is the international security and development mission in Afghanistan led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It was created under a U.N. Security Council resolution in 2001 and is intended to help the Afghan government pave the way for reconstruction and effective governance.

At present, 43 nations contribute troops to the ISAF, with a total strength of approximately 70,000.

The previous government led by the Liberal Democratic Party once studied a plan to provide logistics support to the ISAF by having the Ground and Air Self-Defense Forces provide transportation services, but gave up on it due to deteriorating security conditions in Afghanistan and restrictions under Japan's war-renouncing Constitution.

Since May, Japan has dispatched four civilian officers to the ISAF provincial reconstruction team in Chaghcharan, Ghor Province in central western Afghanistan. The team is led by Lithuania and is engaged in reconstruction works such as building schools, roads and hospitals.

Tokyo has been considering an alternative support plan for Afghanistan as the country is set to terminate its refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around the conflict-ravaged country on Jan. 15, as the Democratic Party of Japan-led government has no plans to extend it.