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TOKYO: Japan said on Tuesday it would give up to five billion dollars in new aid to Afghanistan over the next five years to help rebuild the war-torn nation.
The announcement came just ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit to Tokyo on Friday and Saturday.
"We will offer aid of up to five billion dollars over five years," the government said in a statement after the cabinet of centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama approved the package.
Since coming to power in September, the Hatoyama government has said it will end a naval refuelling mission that has supported the US-led campaign in Afghanistan, but instead promised to step up aid.
The five billion dollars is likely to be disbursed through international organisations such as the UN Development Programme, said media reports.
The main pillar is assistance, such as job training, to help former Taliban soldiers return to mainstream society, and the redevelopment of the capital city of Kabul.
The aid will also include salary payments for police officers and teaching programmes on rice farming and agricultural development.
Japan also said it will implement as quickly as possible a plan to distribute aid worth one billion dollars over two years to neighbouring Pakistan under a package the government pledged in April this year.
Jiji Press news agency said Hatoyama would explain the content of the assistance package at a summit with Obama on Friday.
Japan's aid agency, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has already been active in Afghanistan for years, carrying out health, education and rural and urban development programmes.
Western governments have poured 20 billion dollars into Afghanistan since late 2001, when the United States led an invasion of the country following the September 11 attacks blamed on al-Qaeda extremists in the country.
Obama has been weighing in recent weeks whether to step up troop deployments in Afghanistan, where widespread irregularities marred the election that has won President Hamid Karzai another term.
Top US and NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal has asked for some 40,000 extra troops to fight a deadly insurgency by Taliban militants and Al-Qaeda linked groups in Afghanistan.
- AFP/so
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