TOKYO, Sept 21 (Reuter) - A storm of public anger over the rape of a Japanese schoolgirl forced Japan and the United States to agree on Thursday to a review of a 1960 military agreement under which American troops are stationed in Japan.

But officials from both nations said the review would not lead to any significant change in the agreement.

At a meeting between Foreign Minister Yohei Kono and U.S. Ambassador Walter Mondale, the two nations decided to study how the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) deals with crime.

The study would be by a joint committee of SOFA, the pact which sets legal guidelines for U.S. military personnel and facilities in Japan.

Both Mondale and Kono said they saw no need to revise SOFA, at the heart of the growing controversy involving the rape of a schoolgirl on Okinawa, Japan's southernmost island.

Three U.S. servicemen are suspected of abducting and raping the girl on September 4 as she walked home from shopping.

U.S. authorities refused to turn over the suspects to police because of a clause in SOFA which bars such a move until Japanese prosecutors have issued a formal indictment.

Critics said Japanese investigators were also hampered by time restrictions on questioning the suspects, with interrogation limited to weekday duty hours. The incident, which Mondale described as "brutal" and "loathsome," sparked an outcry in Okinawa, the scene of the only land battle on Japanese soil during World War Two.

One-third of the civil population of Okinawa was killed in the 1945 fighting, and the island remained under U.S. military occupation until 1972. Crimes by U.S. soldiers over the years have kept the anger kindled.

Public anger quickly reached Tokyo. Okinawa Governor Masahide Ota visited Mondale and Kono this week to urge a revison of the 1960 SOFA agreement.

The Japanese government tried to calm the outrage and Kono said he believed SOFA did not hamper police efforts.

The controversy refused to die. On Wednesday, a group of government parliamentarians called for a revision of SOFA.

Experts have said the Japanese government does not want to revise SOFA because it fears that would lead to a review of the entire Japan-U.S. Security Treaty -- the backbone of Japan's security ties with the United States.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Kono on Thursday, Mondale said "it (the incident) is outrageouos, inexcusable, we are ashamed and we apologise."

In his meeting with Kono, Mondale pledged full cooperation in the investigation. He said the suspects would be made available to Japanese investigators whenever necessary, including on weekends and during off duty hours.

There are 44,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan, about 24,000 of them on Okinawa.

Figures from Japan's Defence Agency show that in the past two years U.S. servicemen in Okinawa committed 87 crimes, including murder, armed robbery and rape.

--REUTER

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