Japan would host in October a multinational sea drill aimed at stopping trafficking of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), the Asahi Shimbun said on Tuesday.

The drill would be held in waters near Japan, involving the United States, Australia and other core members of the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), the paper quoted government sources as saying.

The exercise was originally scheduled for May, but the Japanese government postponed it in consideration of the reaction of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as the two countries were talking over the return of kin of former Japanese abductees, the paper said.

In addition, Japan was unable to get its Asian neighbors to endorse the exercise as many questioned the intentions of the United States, according to the daily.

Following Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang and the fresh round of six-party talks, Tokyo deemed the time was ripe for the drill, the paper said.

US President George W. Bush announced the WMD nonproliferation initiative in the Polish city of Krakov on May 31, 2003. He called for an international agreement on seizing and searching planes and ships suspected of transporting illegal weapons or missile technology. There are a total of 15 countries as core members.