Angry lawmakers on Japan's southern island of Okinawa called for progress on shrinking the U.S. military presence and tighter discipline among U.S. troops after the arrest of a U.S. Marine on suspicion of raping a local schoolgirl.

The 38-year-old Marine, Tyrone Hadnott, based at Camp Courtney on the island, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of raping the 14-year-old girl when the two were in a car on Sunday. He has denied raping the girl but acknowledged forcing her to kiss him, an Okinawa police spokesman said.

"Considering the fact that such vicious, atrocious incidents have never ceased to occur, we must question the way the U.S. military enforces discipline and educates its soldiers," the Okinawa assembly said in a resolution protesting the incident.

The lawmakers called for an apology and compensation for the girl and her family, more concrete steps to prevent similar crimes in the future, and a reduction of U.S. forces on the island, host to the bulk of the nearly 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan.

(Article continues below)

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has denounced the incident, which has triggered memories of the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. servicemen that ignited huge protests on Okinawa.

Tokyo has been trying to persuade residents of Okinawa to accept a plan to move the Marines' Futenma air base from the crowded city of Ginowan to the coastal city of Nago.

The move is a key part of a broader plan to move about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam as well as to rejig U.S. forces elsewhere in Japan.

Both Tokyo and Washington are keen to keep the latest incident from affecting broader security ties, and on Thursday, some local assembly members from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party expressed hope that the Futenma relocation plan would not be affected.

"The relocation is a totally different issue," Kyodo news agency quoted Tsunehiro Iha, an LDP assembly member, as saying.

Full article here.