TOKYO Nov 10, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Japan said on Tuesday it would give Afghanistan up to $5 billion in new aid, a package Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama hopes will improve strained security ties with Washington ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit this week. Tokyo and Washington have feuded over plans to relocate a US military base on Japan's southern island of Okinawa as part of a broad reorganisation of US troops. It is the first big test of ties between Washington and a new Japanese government that wants a more equal relationship with its closest security ally. Hatoyama is expected to present the aid package to Obama, who is in the midst of a lengthy review of US strategy for Afghanistan, at a summit on Friday in Tokyo. The aid would be delivered over five years. Both sides have said the row over the reallocation of the Futenma air base, which threatens to stall a realignment of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan, would not be the main focus of the talks on Friday, but Hatoyama is under pressure to make a decision soon. Obama and Hatoyama agreed by phone on Tuesday to strengthen US-Japan ties and discuss global issues such as Afghanistan and climate change at their summit, Japan's top government spokesman Hirofumi Hirano said. Under a 2006 agreement, the Futenma Marine base is to be closed and replaced with a facility built partly on reclaimed land at Henoko, a remoter part of the island, by 2014. The deal, which Washington wants to push through after years of what a military official called "painful" negotiation, is part of a wider plan to reorganise U.S. troops and reduce the burden on Okinawa by moving up to 8,000 Marines to Guam. "We must reach a conclusion that lessens the burden on the Okinawan people, when considering the suffering they have gone through to this day," Hatoyama told reporters on Monday. That view was supported by 70 percent of Okinawa residents in a poll published this month by the Mainichi newspaper. But that may not be fully shared by the overall public. A survey by the mass circulation Yomiuri newspaper showed on Tuesday that 63 percent wanted Japan to implement the plan to relocate the Futenma base as planned or with minor changes. Hatoyama has repeatedly said he would not rush a decision on the issue ahead of Obama's visit, adding the US president would be keen to discuss Japan's assistance to Afghanistan. The aid package, which comes ahead of a planned halt to Japan's naval refuelling mission in support of US-led operations in Afghanistan, will focus on civilian steps including job training for former Taliban fighters. The package, a hefty increase from the $2 billion Tokyo has spent on the country in recent years, will also include steps to improve agriculture, infrastructure and education in Afghanistan.