The top U.S. diplomat for Asia stressed Thursday that the United States and Japan are "working very well together" ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Japan, apparently intending to shrug off concerns stemming from bilateral discord on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan.

"The president is very much looking forward to his visit to Japan next week...I think we are extraordinarily pleased with the preparations," Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters after meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in Tokyo.

"We are fully committed to this (U.S.-Japan) alliance. We think that we are working very well together," he added, but did not tell reporters whether he discussed with Okada the thorny issue of where to relocate a major U.S. Marine airfield on the southern island of Okinawa.

The issue involving the U.S. Marines Corps' Futemma Air Station has recently emerged as a major sticking point between the United States and the new Japanese government led by the Democratic Party of Japan, which has pledged to move toward reexamining the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan.

Under a bilateral accord struck in May 2006, the heliport functions of the Futemma Air Station, located in a downtown residential area of Ginowan, are set to be moved to a less densely populated area in Nago, northern Okinawa, by 2014.

The United States is pressing Japan to abide by the existing deal, but Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told a Diet committee Wednesday that he is still eager to move the airfield out of Okinawa or even out of Japan.

But he also suggested that he would like to find an answer by taking heed of the Japan-U.S. accord and the feelings of people in Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of the U.S. military presence in Japan.

Okada, for his part, has floated the idea of merging Futemma's heliport functions with the nearby U.S. Kadena Air Base also in Okinawa, though the plan was considered and dismissed during past bilateral talks.

Campbell's one-day visit to Japan came shortly after Tokyo announced the cancellation of Okada's planned visit to the United States possibly later this week for talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Okada was hoping to go to the United States before Obama's two-day visit to Japan starting Nov. 12 apparently to discuss the Futemma relocation issue. But he decided to give it up due to the Japanese parliament's schedule.

At the onset of the meeting in Tokyo, Campbell told Okada about his visit to Myanmar on Tuesday and Wednesday. In Myanmar, Campbell met with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while saying that the U.S. government is willing to improve ties with Myanmar junta.

"So it's a first step, an exploratory mission and we were able to lay out our overall approach to the appropriate stakeholders inside the country," Campbell told Okada.

It was the first time in 14 years that direct talks took place between a high-level U.S. official and Suu Kyi.