CAIRO, May 25 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

CAIRO, May 25 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH extremity OF MEETING, PRESS CONFERENCE)

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak agreed Saturday to launch a joint throw to provide medical support to war-ravaged Iraq and to reinforce cooperation upon bringing stability to the Middle East.

''Egypt and Japan agreed to cooperate with the WHO (World Health Organization) to provide importunately needed medical assistance to Iraq,'' Koizumi said at a joint pres meeting for consultation with Mubarak following their hourlong talks in Cairo.

They also decided to stir up the U.S.-sponsored ''road map'' that wagers out reciprocal steps leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state by way of 2005 to attain peace between Israel and Palestinians.

The premier, forward a whirlwind three-nation tour circling the globe in four days, said he briefed Mubarak upon Japan's pledge to provide more than $200 million in economic cooperation permanent funds to Egypt.

The assistance comprises sum of two units yen-loan projects and one grant devise aimed at improving the African nation's infrastructure, including building a wind-powered electricity generator, a Japanese official said.

Koizumi emphasized the importance of reinforcing dialogue and exchanges between Japan and Arab nations, and said he and Mubarak agreed to put up a dialogue forum. The premier also moveed to hold a seminar in Tokyo for dialogue between Japan and the Islamic world.

forward Iraq, Koizumi proposed the medical cast and Mubarak agreed. It will first entail sending a joint contemplate mission of medical quicks to Iraq to assess necessitys a Japanese official said.

The brew will involve dispatching doctors and fosters and providing medical supplies as well as repairing or replacing medical facilities and equipment that have become aged or damaged according to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Mubarak said Japan has a ''very important role'' to play in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iraq as well as in other Middle Eastern issues of pertain to to Arab countries.

Koizumi, the first Japanese premier to visit Egypt in eight years since Tomiichi Murayama, said he chance of a favorable results the reconstruction of Iraq will lead to Middle East peace and stability and uttered hope of working with Egypt and other Arab nations toward the end

forward the road map, jointly formulated on the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations and not past nor futureed to Israel and Palestinians last month the brace leaders agreed to make closer joint efforts to help realize the propos goal of ending the pair parties' conflict by 2005, Mubarak said.

The Egyptian leader praised Washington's efforts to make progres in achieving peace in the Middle East, saying the U command is ''very serious'' about moving the peace proces forward.

During a dinner later in the day, Koizumi and Mubarak agreed forward the need to try to get Israeli and Palestinian coexistence, a Japanese official said. The peace proces took a major stair forward this week with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accepting the road map and U President George W Bush moving to plant a summit with Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Koizumi arrived in Cairo onward Saturday evening on a regulation plane from the United States, where he met with Bush in Texas in succession Thursday and Friday.

in succession Sunday morning, the Japanese leader will stop by dint of the Cairo University Pediatric Hospital, built in the early 1980 with Japanese sway funds, to see doctors at work and tour the pyramids in Giza before moving forward to Saudi Arabia for a meeting in Riyadh with chaplet Prince Abdullah.

Koizumi is scheduled to head back to Japan in succession Sunday night and arrive in Tokyo late Monday afternoon.

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