TOKYO - Japan and the United States have agreed to move 4,700 Marines in Japan's Okinawa to the US territory of Guam, local media reported on Sunday.

The two countries agreed in 2006 to transfer some 8,000 Marines to Guam and also move the US Marines' Futenma airbase in Okinawa to less crowded Henoko, which is also on the Japanese island.

But the implementation of the planned roadmap has been delayed because successive Japanese governments have not yet win over the residents on the island for the acceptation of the deal.

Japan and the United States have already agreed to separate the planned transfer of Okinawa-based Marines to Guam from the issue of relocating the Futenma base by moving 4,700 of the roughly 8, 000 Marines in Okinawa to the US territory in the Pacific without waiting for the relocation of the base, Kyodo News reported.

The remaining 3,300 Marines will be shifted to elsewhere in the Pacific, such as Hawaii, Australia and the Philippines, according to Kyodo report.

Currently, about half of the 47,000 US forces in Japan are deployed in Okinawa and the island's politicians have resisted further efforts by Tokyo to have more troops stationed there.

The US bases have been long blamed for generating noise and pollution by many residents on the sub-tropical island, who refuse to accept the plan to shift the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to another part of the island.