President Barack Obama says the U.S. and Japan will work quickly to resolve a dispute over American military bases on Okinawa.

At a news conference Friday, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama recalled that he had campaigned on the issue of moving the U.S. base away from populated areas. He said the issue had to be settled quickly because delay would only cause the matter to fester.

The base issue, established by a U.S.-Japanese treaty that marks its 50th anniversary next year, is a major sore point in bilateral relations. Hatoyama took power under a platform of trying to rebalance the countries' ties.