Japan to offer 100 bln dlrs to help emerging nations: reports

Japan is ready to lend up to about 100 billion dollars to the International Monetary Fund to help boost loans to emerging countries hit hard by the financial crisis, reports said Thursday.

Prime Minister Taro Aso will announce the plan at a summit on the financial crisis that will bring together leaders of the Group of 20 industrialised and emerging nations from Friday in Washington, Jiji Press and other media said.

Japan is reportedly willing to loan up to about 10 percent of its 980-billion-dollar foreign exchange reserves to the IMF, which counts on Tokyo as its second-largest donor. There was no immediate confirmation.

The Nikkei economic daily said Japan would offer to lend the reserves in the form of US Treasuries which the IMF could use as collateral to raise money should it experience a shortage of funds.

At the Washington summit, Japan also plans to call on other countries with ample foreign exchange reserves, such as China and Middle Eastern oil-producing nations, to provide funds, the daily said.

The IMF has about 200 billion dollars in surplus funds but it is scrambling to bolster its finances because it is expected to make several large loans to countries such as Iceland, Serbia and Ukraine, it noted.

Japan's large foreign exchange reserves are the result of years of currency intervention by the government to keep the yen down against the dollar and help exporters stay competitive.

However, Japan's monetary authorities have not intervened since March 2004, allowing the yen to find its own level against the dollar.