Japan plans rice aid to RI

Japan plans rice aid to RI

TOKYO (Reuters): Japan has not yet agreed on details of its
food aid to Indonesia ahead of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's
trip to Jakarta this weekend, an official at the Foreign Ministry
said yesterday.

"We haven't yet decided the amount (of the rice aid) or the
way to provide the food," the official said.

Last month, the Japanese government approved a plan to quickly
grant food aid to Indonesia, which is struggling with a drought
as well as an economic and political crisis.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Thursday that Jakarta
was set to import 3.7 million tonnes of rice this year, the
highest since 1965, as its 1997/98 crop would drop to 30.90
million tonnes from 32.18 million the previous year.

An official at Japan's Food Agency said it was still unclear
how much rice Indonesia needed. Meanwhile, members of Japan's
ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have urged the government
to send surplus domestic rice.

Taro Nakayama, a former foreign minister who led an LDP
mission to Southeast Asia last month, has said Jakarta requested
one million tonnes of rice to cope with its food shortage.