TOKYO (AP) -- Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will push the U.S. to keep North Korea on a blacklist of countries that support terrorism when he visits Washington during his first overseas trip as Japan's leader this week, officials said Wednesday.

Fukuda, who leaves for Washington on Thursday and was to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House on Friday, will also assure Bush that Japan will do all it can to quickly restart a naval mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S. troops.

The Japanese leader, who assumed office in September, said he chose the United States as his first overseas destination to underscore that Washington is Japan's most important ally and a key to security in the region.

The two leaders were expected to discuss security issues, the denuclearization of North Korea and Tokyo's concerns over the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 80s. Japan believes the North abducted more than a dozen of its citizens, and has refused to provide economic aid or restart normalization talks until the issue is cleared up.

Nobutaka Machimura, Fukuda's chief spokesman, said the prime minister would stress that resolution of the abduction issue remains a crucial point for Tokyo. Officials in Tokyo have indicated that Japan would not welcome the delisting of the North from the terrorist-supporting list before that, and Fukuda was likely to raise that concern with Bush.

But Machimura said Fukuda was also willing to be flexible.

"It's up to the United States whether they remove North Korea from the list of terrorist nations, and that is not based on the abduction issue," he said.

Removal from the terror list is one of the rewards promised to North Korea in return for disabling its nuclear facilities by Dec. 31.

The U.S. put North Korea on its terrorism list after North Korean agents planted a bomb on a South Korean commercial jetliner in 1987. But the country has since not been tied directly to terrorism.

U.S. officials have not said when they might delist the North, but Tokyo expects the decision soon.

In a short statement, the White House said that "Japan is one of America's closest friends and allies, and the president looks forward to a productive exchange on ways to further enhance our strong partnership."

Fukuda took office after the sudden resignation in September of Shinzo Abe, who led Japan's ruling party into a disastrous showing at elections in July.

He has struggled to deal with a stronger opposition bloc, which effectively scuttled a mission began in 2001 to support U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan. The naval mission involved refueling ships in the Indian Ocean. Japan's leading opposition party, the Democrats, claimed the mission violated Japan's pacifist constitution and did not have a U.N. mandate.

The Japanese ships involved in the mission are now returning home, but a bill is in the works that would allow a renewed and redefined deployment in the same area that would focus on anti-terrorism patrols. The bill has already passed the lower house of Japan's parliament.

Machimura said Fukuda, who has defended the mission as a cornerstone of Japan's efforts in the global war on terror, will stress to Bush his support for a resumption as soon as possible.