Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet decided at a meeting to dispatch six personnel to Nepal to observe arms control for a year, a defence ministry official said.

The six -- unarmed military personnel -- will help monitor weapons and soldiers as part of the UN mission observing the accord that ended the Himalayan kingdom's bloody decade-long Maoist insurgency.

Japan, which was forced by the United States to renounce its right to armed forces after World War II, has been slowly expanding its military operations overseas.

In January, Japan created a full-fledged defence ministry for the first time since 1945, upgrading the former Defence Agency which was lower in rank than cabinet-level ministries.

With the change, Abe's conservative government also listed overseas peacekeeping activities as a mission for Japan's military, which are known as the Self-Defence Forces.