Japan decided Friday to provide $4.3 million in emergency aid to Yugoslavia to help the country purchase fertilizer for its wheat crop, the Foreign Ministry said.

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono told Friday morning's Cabinet meeting the assistance is being provided because agricultural production in Yugoslavia has been hit by economic sanctions imposed by the international community as well as a drought last summer.

The aid is part of an emergency aid package of up to $10 million that Japan pledged in October to support Yugoslavia's democratization efforts under President Vojislav Kostunica, who took office in early October after Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown.

Japan will continue to help Yugoslavia move toward democratization and its acceptance into the international community, the ministry said. Tokyo suspended providing intergovernmental official development assistance to Yugoslavia in November 1991.

In June 1998, it imposed economic sanctions on Yugoslavia, including a ban on investment, in response to the Balkan conflict. The sanctions have since been lifted.

UNDP to get $658,000

Japan decided Friday to provide $658,000 to the U.N. Development Program to help the process of human-resource development in East Timor, which is in a transitional stage toward full independence, the Foreign Ministry said.

The emergency grant is part of some $100 million that Japan pledged last December to support the restoration and development of East Timor over a three-year period. Foreign Minister Yohei Kono reported the decision to the Cabinet on Friday morning.

The money will go to a scholarship program that UNDP is running to support East Timorese students at universities in Indonesia, the ministry said.

East Timor needs help in training future leaders as it goes through the nation-building process under the guidance of the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor after its people voted for independence from Indonesia in August 1999, the ministry said.

The Japanese government's contribution is designed to help the many East Timorese who have been forced to suspend their studies at universities in Indonesia following the 1999 referendum and the subsequent unrest.