Japan will send a team of about 10 observers to Afghanistan to monitor the Aug. 20 presidential and provincial assembly election there, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Takehiro Kagawa, deputy director general of the ministry's Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau, will head the team of ministry officials and Japanese Embassy staff in Kabul.

Japan will help Afghanistan conduct a free and fair election, the ministry said in a statement.

President Hamid Karzai is seeking a second five-year term.

Taliban militants have called on all Afghans to boycott the elections and fight a war to oust foreigners from the country.

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone met his Afghan counterpart, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, in Italy in June and conveyed Japan's decision to send a monitoring team to Afghanistan.