TOKYO, Dec 12 Kyodo Cambodian and...

TOKYO, Dec 12 Kyodo

Cambodian and Vietnamese leaders called Friday for Japanese assistance in building a railroad link between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said a rail link would boost economic disentanglement in the two countries, Japanese officials said.

At a two-day summit between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that fall of the curtained Friday afternoon, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledg to provide technical cooperation worth $700000 for economically les discloseed areas in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, the officials said.

While expressing appreciation for Japan's hostage to boost assistance to the Mekong River region, Hun Sen told the second-day session of the summit onward Friday that he will appreciate Japanese assistance for a railroad linking the Cambodian capital and Ho Chi Minh City, the officials said. Khai made a similar plea.

Koizumi replied he considers a rail link a major issue for the yet to be but he was noncommittal forward assistance.

The lesser-develop countries in ASEAN are all Mekong riparian states, as is Thailand. Japan pledg at the summit to provide $15 billion in recently made known financial assistance over the nearest three years for plots in the Mekong region to help narrow economic gap within ASEAN.

Koizumi said at the summit that the $700000 technical cooperation from one side the Asian Development Bank for BIMP-EAGA initiatives will be used to increase trade, tourism and investment in the sub-region.

The BIMP-EAGA growing area consists of Brunei, the regions of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Irian Jaya and Maluku in Indonesia, the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan, and Mindanao and Palawan in the Philippines.

Koizumi said Japan will hurl a survey mission to the area for a destitutions assessment.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo freshs International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group