JAPAN: The government has confirmed the existence in a U.S. bank of an interest-free savings account that is linked to an alleged secret Japan-U.S. agreement on the financial cost of the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan, Finance Minister Naoto Kan said Friday.

According to government sources, the U.S. bank was the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

However, it remains unclear whether the government in power at the time, instead of earning interest on the deposit, might instead have used it to provide the United States with de facto funding for the reversion costs.

"So far, we haven't learned of any evidence that could lead to such an interpretation," Kan said.

At a press conference after a Cabinet meeting Friday morning, Kan said the Finance Ministry would announce details on the issue after coordinating opinions with the Foreign Ministry, possibly next week.

The information would include issues such as whether profits were realized from managing the savings and if so, whether such revenue could be recognized as being used to pay the costs the United States was supposed to shoulder to return plots of land used by U.S. forces.

"We have confirmed the existence of an interest-free savings account in a U.S. bank as the bank notified us of the fact," Kan said.

The secret account is not included among the issues studied by a Foreign Ministry panel examining alleged secret bilateral accords between Japan and the United States.

The panel plans to recognize that 4 million dollars (S$5.605 million) in costs to restore plots of land used by U.S. forces to their original state was included in the amount Japan officially had paid the United States.

The government officially had announced it had paid the United States 320 million dollars for costs related to Okinawa's reversion.

However, some observers claim the existence of secret Japan-U.S. agreements on the interest-free savings account and other issues, and also claim the government at the time in fact had paid Washington a sum of 685 million dollars.