Japan's incoming prime minister Yukio Hatoyama in the past called for the United States to remove the Futenma Marine base -- long a sore point as it lies in a crowded urban area off the southern island of Okinawa.

But State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States would not revisit a deal finalized just months ago by Japan's long-ruling conservatives that also includes moving troops to the US territory of Guam.

"The United States has no intention to renegotiate the Futenma replacement facility plan or Guam relocation with the government of Japan," Kelly said.

After exhaustive negotiations, former president George W. Bush's administration agreed to dismantle Futenma and shift the facilities to reclaimed land in a quiet part of Okinawa.

Some Okinawan activists -- backed by Hatoyama's Democratic Party while in opposition -- want the United States to get the base off Okinawa completely.

In their platform for Sunday's election, the Democrats said they would "move in the direction of re-examining the realignment of US military forces in Japan and the role of US military bases in Japan."

Okinawa, a tiny subtropical island chain strategically located near the Taiwan Strait, is home to more than half of the 47,000 US troops across Japan.

The United States has agreed to shift 8,000 Marines from Okinawa -- along with 9,000 of their dependents -- to Guam by 2014, with Japan paying 2.8 billion dollars for the move.

The Democrats won a crushing election victory on Sunday -- ousting the Liberal Democratic Party which had ruled almost uninterrupted since 1955 -- on a wave of voter discontent with a bumbling economy and revolving-door politics.

While foreign policy was not a key campaign issue, Hatoyama has pledged that Japan would seek a more "equal" alliance with the United States.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs played down Hatoyama's criticism of US-led globalization, saying the two countries "have always had a strong relationship" that would continue "regardless of what Japanese government is in power."

While in opposition, the Democrats -- saying Japan should not be part of "American wars" -- used parliamentary tactics to disrupt an Indian Ocean mission providing fuel and other support to US-led forces in Afghanistan.

Hatoyama has agreed not to interrupt the mission before it expires in January, setting the stage for a potentially divisive debate in his party on whether to extend it.

Kelly said that the Japanese "play a critical role in some of our refueling efforts."

"A stable, prosperous Afghanistan is in the interests of the entire international community, including Japan," Kelly said.

But he added: "It's up to each country to determine how they can best contribute to that effort."

"We look forward to a discussion of what kind of role Japan will play," Kelly said.

Japan's landmark election made the front-pages of the major US newspapers, but their editorials were divided on what Hatoyama meant for the United States.

The Wall Street Journal said that while change was "healthy" -- and could break Japanese policymakers' cozy relationship with the bureaucracy and business elites -- Hatoyama's policies "may be disappointing."

The conservative newspaper said that the new prime minister may not "understand the imperative of encouraging entrepreneurship" in the world's second largest economy.

But The Christian Science Monitor said Japan was "invigorating its democracy."

"While this enhanced democracy may diminish US interests -- which include using Japan as an 'unsinkable aircraft carrier' in Asia -- there are long-term benefits to rooting Japan's future more deeply in the wishes of its people," it wrote.

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