Japan has added its name to a list of countries joining a US scheme to cut Iraq's debts by saying it was prepared to write off a vast majority of what it was owed as part of an international agreement.
The Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a strong supporter of US policies in Iraq, made the pledge in a meeting with the US administration's special envoy on Iraq debt, Mr James Baker.
"Japan would be prepared to eliminate the vast majority of its Iraqi debt, if other . . . creditors are prepared to do so," a Foreign Ministry statement said. It did not give specific figures.
Japan is owed about $4.1 billion by Iraq, excluding penalty payments, which in theory would lift the figure to about $7 billion.
The United States, struggling with a worsening insurgency in Iraq, sees freeing the country of its estimated $120 billion foreign debt burden as key to helping revive the economy.
US President George W. Bush sent Mr Baker, a former secretary of state, to major creditor nations earlier this month to try to reach an international agreement.
Iraq is the most heavily indebted country in the world in terms of its population.
Japan , which has already pledged $5 billion in reconstruction aid, had previously said it would not forgive the Iraqi debt , preferring to reschedule because it believed Iraq could repay the debt with revenue from oil exports.