The Foreign Ministry has decided to admit the existence of a secret Japan-U.S. pact under which Tokyo allows stopovers of U.S. military vessels or aircraft carrying nuclear weapons, ministry sources said Saturday.

     The government admitted Friday that the Japanese economy has been mired in mild deflation as consumer prices have kept falling, marking the first such assessment in over three years and which adds to widespread concerns the economy may recover at a slower pace than earlier thought.

     The Cabinet Secretariat received around 1.2 billion yen in so-called secret funds each year from fiscal 2004 through fiscal 2008 -- roughly 100 million yen each month from April 2004 through last month, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano disclosed Friday, while declining to make clear how the funds were used.