Gov't, DPJ eyeing 20% cut in ODA to finance 1st quake-relief budget+

TOKYO, April 6 Kyodo -
The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Japan plan to cut the foreign aid allocation for fiscal 2011 by 20 percent to finance the first extra budget for post-quake relief and reconstruction, government and party sources said Wednesday.
The government and the DPJ will make the cut from official development assistance worth around 570 billion yen to secure funds for the first in a series of extra budgets envisaged for reconstruction work following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the sources said.
The drastic review of foreign aid comes on the heels of a government plan to craft an extra budget of over 3 trillion yen to finance measures to help reconstruct Japan.
The DPJ was already considering securing funds for the first extra budget from money already earmarked for its key policies such as a monthly child allowance program, putting more than 500 billion yen at the government's disposal.
With the reduction in ODA, the figure would now amount to more than 600 billion yen.
DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada met separately Wednesday with opposition counterparts Nobuteru Ishihara of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party and Yoshihisa Inoue of the second-largest opposition New Komeito party to seek their cooperation in securing quick passage of the extra budget.
The details of the first extra budget are likely to be unveiled as early as April 14, the sources said.