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Tokyo - Japan is to release 20 000 tonnes of rice for developing countries in Africa and elsewhere to help ease the global food crisis, reports said Thursday.
Tokyo will use its stockpile of domestic and imported rice for the aid package, part of $100m worth of emergency food aid announced in late April, Kyodo News said, citing unnamed sources.
The government will officially decide to release the first food aid package at a cabinet meeting on Friday, the Nikkei said.
Foreign ministry officials in charge of the plan were not immediately available for comment.
Japan said in late April that it would give food aid worth 100 million dollars to help poor countries cope with spiralling food prices.
The plan was announced as Japan pledged to put the global food crisis on the agenda when it hosts the annual summit of the Group of Eight rich nations in July.
The government said at the time that it would give aid worth $50m in May through the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), mostly to countries in Africa, and give out the rest within three months.
Last week a US trade official told AFP the United States was considering allowing Japan to sell imported US rice on the global market, blocked by their bilateral agreement under the World Trade Organisation, in an effort to curb soaring prices.
- AFP