``There is some kind of misunderstanding,'' Japan's ambassador to India Hiroshi Hirabayashi said today, when asked why Tokyo had sought to internationalise the Kashmir issue after New Delhi went nuclear. ``But the Japanese Government has no intention to mediate between the two countries on Kashmir,'' he added.

Hirabayashi's comments to The Indian Express as well as at a FICCI lecture earlier seemed to signal Tokyo's desire to mend relations with India, especially after it cancelled a $1 billion development loan to India on learning of its second round of tests.

``India may be trusted by many countries not to use nuclear weapons,'' Hirabayashi went on to say, implying that at least part of the reason for using tough language on Kashmir was to preventPakistan and other countries from following India's lead on testing.

Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto had in late May said that Tokyo would help internationalise Kashmir, including in the Security Council, a statement that made New Delhi see red. Never in the history of the Indo-Japanese relationship has Tokyo ever talked publicly about Kashmir, ministry of external affairs sources said.

New Delhi believes that Tokyo's enthusiasm over Kashmir stemmed not only from its close relationship with the US, but also because it realised that to appear to be a ``responsible'' world power and get into the Security Council as a permanent member it needed Washington's support.

Hirabayashi, firmly ruling out Japanese intervention, sought to explain that ``some policy-makers in Japan'' had thought that an unstable South Asia might lead to a nuclear exchange between the two countries. ``But we wish good success to the bilateral talks,'' he said.

Even at the FICCI lecture, the Japanese ambassador sought tosend out positive signals, while reaffirming that the nuclear tests had, at least for the time being, killed the bilateral economic relationship.

He took pains to point out that Japanese sanctions did not cover trade and investment, technical cooepration, EXIM bank and humanitarian and disaster relief projects. ``I feel really sorry that our efforts to help those affected in the Gujarat cyclone was rejected by the Indian government,'' he said.

Calling himself a ``friend of India'' in the resume of his speech, he said, he understood that India's tests, based on security concerns, were not ``groundless. I find some rationale exists here. But they do not justify fully India, this great nation's need to go nuclear.''