The move came as Japan tumbled two spots to the fifth place among the world's 22 major aid donors in 2007.

Preliminary figures released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show that Japan's ODA spending decreased by 30.1 percent year-on-year in real terms to 7.69 billion USD.

Government sources say that the foreign ministry is considering including the twofold expansion of Japan's ODA for Africa in such areas as the construction of infrastructure in the action plan to be adopted at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development meeting scheduled for May in Yokohama.

UN statistics estimated that the top three donors to Africa are Britain, the United States and China.

R-3:45-3:57 PM

E- 4:00-4:12

---END---