TOKYO, July 10, SPA -- Japan and the United States held a joint missile defense exercise off the Japanese coast last week, a Defense Ministry official said Tuesday. The two countries held a regional ballistic missiledefense drill on July 6, bringing together Aegis-radarequipped destroyers and early warning aircraft, or AWACS,according to a Japanese Defense Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity according to protocol. The allies practiced target-tracking andinformation-sharing during the exercise, she was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. She refused to disclose the location except that it washeld «at sea and in air around Japan.»--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/466213