111.   Japanese negotiators rejected the measures as numerical targets which would lead to managed trade.

112.   Japanese ministers predicted Tuesday that Washington would back down on setting numerical targets for American access to Japanese markets when trade talks resume.

113.   Kubo said he had asked ministry officials to set numerical targets and draw up measures to overhaul fiscal policy.

114.   Japan, now under heavy US pressure for greater market access, reportedly refused to accept US demands for numerical targets in gauging the openness of government procurement.

115.   Kantor said Tuesday that Washington had never asked for numerical targets, and that the US side had confirmed this in the talks resulting in the accord announced Tuesday.

116.   Mitsuzuka also said the plan may need to include some sort of numerical targets in order to achieve the necessary ministerial reorganisation.

117.   Moreover, critics say it looks weak on enforcement, notably lacking any hard numerical targets or mechanisms that would bind Japanese companies to US projections.

118.   Reports from Tokyo before the talks began suggested the Japanese team could bring proposals for at least partial acceptance of numerical targets in the government procurement sector.

119.   Sakamato said that the main problem for Japan remained the US insistence on setting numerical targets as gauges of progress in widening access to the Japanese markets.

120.   Showing specific figures for local content ratios is the same as setting numerical targets, he said.