TOKYO, Japan - Japan's defence minister said Tuesday that Tokyo does not expect to reach a breakthrough with Washington over the relocation of a major US airbase before President Barack Obama visits next month.

Japan's new centre-left government has signalled it does not want a replacement facility for the US Marine Corps to be built on southern Okinawa island by 2014, as agreed by a previous conservative government.

"We will still be very far from resolving everything and from reaching an agreement by the time the US president visits here," Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa told reporters.

"We are continuing to review what was agreed by previous administrations," he said. "It's important that we finish that process first."

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which took power last month, has said it will review a 2006 agreement between the former conservative government and Washington on relocating the Marine Corps Futenma Air Base.

The base sits in the middle of Okinawa's Ginowan City and stretches over about five square kilometres (two square miles), or one-quarter of the city.

Under the plan, the base would be closed and a new US base built in a coastal area on Okinawa by 2014. Many residents welcomed the closure plan, but some want the base moved off the island altogether, a plan backed by the DPJ.

The defence minister's comment came days after Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, visited Japan and said he hoped "real progress" would be made before Obama visits Japan in mid-November.