"If it is possible, I would hope that President Obama or some other high-ranking officials of his administration will be able to visit Henoko," Fukushima, also a Cabinet minister, told a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.

Fukushima was referring to the Henoko area in Nago, to which the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station currently in Ginowan, another Okinawa city, is to be relocated in line with the bilateral accord.

Obama will visit Japan for two days from Friday for talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

"I am one of those who are impressed with President Obama's speeches and books and respect what he has been doing," Fukushima said. "I am also delighted to hear that he is interested in visiting Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the two Japanese atomic-bombed cities) in the future."

Fukushima said she hopes that Obama will also put more focus on the base issue in Okinawa and visit the southernmost Japanese prefecture before coming to a conclusion on the Futemma relocation issue.

The Japan-U.S. summit will be held as bilateral ties appear to be fraying amid a row over the Futemma relocation, as the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan, launched in mid-September, has pledged to review the bilateral accord to alleviate the burden of people in Okinawa.

She stressed that both governments should not ignore the persistent opposition by local residents against the construction of a new relocation site in Nago.

"We must not coerce the construction of the base because if we do so, we will be exposed to antagonism among the people in Okinawa and this would produce no beneficial results as we look back on the history in many years ahead of us," she said.

Also on the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, Fukushima, a lawyer-turned-politician, said the agreement should be revised so a U.S. soldier suspected of a crime can be handed over to Japanese authorities in any case and tried under Japanese laws in a more smooth way than now.

She made the comments on the SOFA in reference to a recent hit-and-run incident that resulted in the death of a man in the village of Yomitan, Okinawa. A U.S. Army member has been in custody at a U.S. base in connection with the case.

Under the SOFA, which governs the operations of the U.S. military in Japan, a U.S. service member can be handed over to Japan before a formal indictment only in cases of murder, rape and other heinous crimes.