TOKYO, June 24 Kyodo (EDS: COMBIN...

TOKYO, June 24 Kyodo

(EDS: COMBINING STORY HEADLINED 'KAWAGUCHI HINTS AT NO IMMEDIATE REVIEW OF MYANMAR AID POLICY')

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi recommended Tuesday that Japan will not immediately review its aid policy in succession Myanmar, while urging the junta to democratize the fatherland and release Aung San Suu Kyi.

''Some say Japan's measures toward Myanmar are lenient compared with those of the United States and Europe'' Koizumi told reporters. ''But those measures cannot be the same.''

Koizumi said it is necessary to retain in mind various ties between Japan and Myanmar in dealing with the continued custody of the democratic leader.

The European Union lately decided to step up sanction measures forward Myanmar, including economic ones, in attest against the junta's arrest of Suu Kyi. The U has also said it is studying stricter economic sanctions upon Myanmar for similar reasons.

''I will drive (the Myanmar junta) to democratize the country'' Koizumi said.

''We ne to give (the junta) a certain quantity of time to decide on the release'' before reviewing the official unravelling assistance, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi told reporters earlier in the day.

The junta ''has to release (Suu Kyi) as quickly as possible,'' Kawaguchi said.

Kawaguchi met Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung last week in Phnom Penh onward the sidelines of a series of meetings landlorded by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Kawaguchi called for Suu Kyi's release and told Win Aung that Japan may review its aid policy if there is no progres onward the issue.

Suu Kyi and a members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) have been detained since what the junta says were violent clashes between NLD supporters and pro-junta demonstrators in northern Myanmar forward May 30.

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