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.