Japan may cut its aid disbursement to the United Nations' development unit because of cuts being made to its official development assistance budget, Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda told James Speth, administrator of the U.N. Development Program, according to ministry officials.

Ikeda told Speth that Tokyo may have to cut voluntary aid allocations by more than 10 percent, the officials said. Japan was the top aid donor to the UNDP in 1996 with about $110.11 million, but the disbursement was made voluntarily, not based on allocations, they said. Japan's ODA will be cut by 10 percent for fiscal 1998 because of the government's reform moves to tighten fiscal spending.