TOKYO, April 22, SPA -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today told a group of relatives of people suspected of having been abducted by North Korean agents that he plans to raise the abduction issue during his talks with U.S. President George W. Bush later this week, reported Japanese news agency KYODO today. ''Over the past 10 years, the abduction issue has spread to the world and become a big international issue. So we must work on it in coordination with other countries,'' he said at the outset of a luncheon he hosted, inviting some 20 relatives of people, including Thai and South Korean nationals, who are believed to have been abducted by North Korea. ''I would like to continue to do my utmost toward the resolution of the issue,'' he said, adding, ''I will visit the United States this week and have fresh talks with President Bush about the importance of resolving the abduction issue.'' Participants in the luncheon included Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki and other government representatives. In 2002, North Korea admitted to abducting 13 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, later allowing five of them to return to Japan. It maintains the other eight, including Yokota's daughter Megumi, are dead -- a claim disputed by the Japanese government and their relatives. During the meeting of the relatives' group earlier in the day, Yokota formally expressed his intention to step down from the post of chief of the group, citing health reasons. Yokota, 74, has been at the post for the past 10 years since the group's founding in 1997.-- SPA www.spa.gov.sa/443183