The Abe administration is considering providing 10 vehicles with night-vision equipment to Tunisia to improve border security and prevent infiltration by terrorists, after an attack this month at a Tunis museum killed three Japanese and over a dozen other tourists, a diplomatic source said.

The administration is studying Tunisia's request for the vehicles because it hopes to strengthen relations with other countries interested in countering terrorism, following the beheadings of two Japanese captured by the Islamic State militant group earlier this year.

The request for the four-wheel-drive vehicles was made when Parliamentary Vice Foreign Minister Kazuyuki Nakane met with Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid and Foreign Minister Taieb Baccouche on March 23 in Tunis, the source said Sunday.

Tunisia also asked Japan for monitors it can use to check people's movements at airports, the source said.

The administration sees an urgent need to respond to the requests amid concerns about the influx of weapons from neighboring Libya, which has descended into civil war. The two Tunisian gunmen shot dead in the museum attack were trained in Libya.

Tokyo is planning to tap a ¥687 million grants-in-aid fund set up in January to improve Tunisia's security, the source said.

For Mideast and African nations, the government has set a policy of helping to improve medical services and infrastructure to enhance people's living standards and their capacity to fight terrorism.