Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan on Thursday urged Japan to immediately begin disposing bad loans in the banking sector, a senior Japanese ruling party official said.
Disposal of nonperforming loans is an urgent task facing the Japanese government, Greenspan was quoted by Taku Yamasaki, Liberal Democratic Party secretary general, as saying.
Yamasaki spoke to reporters after he and the secretaries general of the two other parties forming Japan's ruling coalition -- Tetsuzo Fuyushiba from New Komeito and Takeshi Noda from the New Conservative Party -- met with the Fed chief.
The trio was in Washington on a three-day visit to brief U.S. leaders on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic, foreign and defense policies.