The United States has refused Japan's request that it hand over an American Marine accused of attempting to rape a woman on Okinawa, home to most of the country's US military bases.

US Marine Major Michael J Brown, 39, has denied attempting to rape a woman in her car last month.

Under a 1995 accord with Japan, the US is required to give "full favourable consideration" to all requests to hand over a serviceman who is charged with a serious crime.

South Korea is protesting against US troops there

But the Japanese foreign ministry said the US had turned down its request, prompting what the Japanese government described as "extreme regret" at the US position.

The case is important because the presence of US forces on Okinawa, a string of tiny islands at the southern tip of the Japanese archipelago, is extremely sensitive.

There have been a number of criminal cases involving US servicemen in recent years, fuelling resentment that 26,000 of the 48,000 US military personnel in Japan are hosted there, even though Okinawa makes up less than 1% of the Japanese landmass.

'Usual procedure'

The US embassy in Japan said on Thursday that "the circumstances of this case... do not warrant departure from the standard practice as agreed between the United States and Japan, under which the United States maintains custody of its personnel prior to indictment".

The woman was assaulted at about 0130 local time on 2 November, a Japanese police spokesman said in the Okinawan capital, Naha.

"The man tried to rape a woman in a car. But he failed to accomplish his purpose because the woman resisted furiously," the spokesman reportedly said.

"Then the man threw her cell phone and broke it."

Simmering resentment

Major Brown is still performing his regular duties at the US Marines' Camp Courtney in Okinawa, a spokesman for the camp said, but he had met Okinawan police three times since the allegation was made.

As the US has not handed over jurisdiction in the case to Japan, the arrest warrant against Major Brown, obtained by Japanese police on Tuesday, cannot be served.

But the Japanese foreign ministry noted that the US had pledged to co-operate fully with the criminal investigation.

In March, a US airman, Timothy Woodland, was sentenced to 32 months in a Japanese prison for the June 2001 rape of a local woman, and in 1995 three US servicemen admitted raping a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl.

The US' refusal to hand over jurisdiction to Japan in this latest case comes as protests continue in neighbouring South Korea over the acquittal of two US servicemen whose tank ran over two local schoolgirls in June.