Aso calls for increase in ODA budget

TOKYO, Nov. 26 Kyodo - Prime Minister Taro Aso on Wednesday stressed the need for the government to boost Japan's official development assistance in the fiscal 2009 budget to be compiled by late December, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker said.

''Strengthening diplomacy is the most important policy issue for Japan. A
decline in ODA (from the previous year) won't work,'' Aso was quoted by former
Financial Services Minister Toshimitsu Motegi as telling members of the LDP's
special commission on diplomacy.
The commission members, including Motegi and former Prime Minister Yoshiro
Mori, visited Aso at the prime minister's office to ask the government to
increase the ODA budget.
Japan's ODA budget has been cut for nine straight years. This led Japan, a
former No. 1 world donor, to be surpassed by Germany and France in 2007 and
tumble to fifth place among 22 major donors in terms of ODA disbursements.
==Kyodo