Tokyo - A Japanese court ruled Thursday that an airlifting mission by Japan's Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) in Iraqi war was unconstitutional.

The Nagoya High Court called it a violation of war-renouncing Article 9 to help airlift armed troops for multinational forces to Baghdad. But it rejected a demand filed by 1,100 citizens to suspend Japan's troop dispatch and to pay compensation.

"The ASDF's airlifting activities (to and from Iraq) run counter to (the war-renouncing) Article 9 of the Constitution" and to the
2003 special law to allow the Self-Defense Forces to provide humanitarian support for Iraq's reconstruction efforts, the ruling said.

Article 9 stipulates that "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes."

The court said airlifting armed troops "plays a part in the use of force by other countries" and can be interpreted as Japan's use of force.

The ruling was the first to declare Self-Defense Force mission unconstitutional.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said the government would not accept the result. and the ruling would not affect Japan's activities in Iraq, according to local media. (dpa)