Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama expressed plans Wednesday to increase Japan's aid to help developing countries curb greenhouse gas emissions from the roughly $9 billion already pledged, but he stopped short of specifying an exact sum.
He revealed the plans ahead of his Thursday trip to Copenhagen to attend the ongoing U.N. climate conference.
"While national interests are important, global interests are also very important," Hatoyama told reporters, saying there is a need for Japan to cajole developing countries into joining the global efforts and bring the talks to a successful conclusion.
"Now that we've declared that (Japan will do) more than before, we will think about taking more financial care than before," he said, without disclosing by how much the aid will be increased.
The 15th Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, as the talks are formally known, is expected to produce a political deal to set the outlines of a new legal framework to combat climate change, after the first commitment period for developed countries under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.
Japan has said it is ready to offer $9.2 billion as near-term aid by 2012 for developing countries, while setting a goal of slashing its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.
Hatoyama is expected to return home Saturday.