The United States and Japan agreed Saturday to reduce American Marines on Okinawa by 7,000, and transfer them to the Pacific island of Guam, the Pentagon announced.

The headquarters of the US III Marine Expeditionary Force would be relocated to Guam and other locations and the remaining Marine units in Okinawa would be realigned and reduced into a Marine Expeditionary Brigade, according to the "Security Consultative Committee Document -- US-Japan Alliance: Transformation and Realignment for the Future," released by the Pentagon on Saturday.

The document was released following a US-Japan Security Consultative Committee, informally known as a '2+2', meeting, hosted by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.

Members of the committee included Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Nobutaka Machimura and Minister of State for Defense of Japan Yoshinori Ohno.

Currently there are 14,460 US Marines in Japan, the largest Marine contingent based overseas. Nearly all are located on Okinawa, where residents have long complained of crime, crowding and noise associated with the Marine bases.

Source: Xinhua