The United States, Israel and European countries are considering staging jungle training exercises with Japan in its subtropical island of Okinawa, triggering criticism Tuesday from a local leader.

Okinawa is home to more than half of the 40,000 US troops in Japan and there have often been tensions with local residents.

Military liaison officers from Germany, Israel, Japan and the Netherlands visited a US Marine jungle warfare training centre in Okinawa in May for "possible future jungle training sessions," a US Marines statement said.

"The visit served as a stepping stone toward those long-term goals," Major Mark Givens, a command liaison officer with the US Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Virginia, said in the statement.

But the visit was "exploratory in nature", it added, as the Japanese government would have to approve any plans for non-US foreign personnel to use the facility.

"It was a very good presentation," German Army Sergeant Major Joerg Ehret, a liaison at the US command, said in the release. "We look forward to trying to come out and train here."

The jungle warfare training centre is located in the north of the main Okinawan island from the villages of Kunigami to Higashi.

But Higashi village Mayor Seikyu Iju told Kyodo News the proposal ran counter to an agreement to cut the US military presence, reached after three servicemen in 1995 gang-raped an Okinawan girl triggering mass protests.

The United States has promised to return half of the sprawling jungle training centre to Japanese control.

The mayor said the training sessions "could lead to a strengthening of US base functions and cause anxieties among the residents," according to Kyodo.

US troops are stationed in Japan under a security alliance reached after World War II when the Asian country was forced to renounce the right to wage war.