The government plans to cut its overall foreign aid by 7.9 percent in the fiscal 2010 general account budget, marking the third-steepest fall on record and 11th straight annual decline, according to the state budget the Cabinet approved Friday.

Applying the government's budget policy of spending more to directly help people's lives rather than on public works projects, aid for infrastructure construction and other projects abroad was reduced by about a third from 2008 official development assistance, government officials said.

The government allocated ¥618.7 billion for ODA in the budget plan for the next fiscal year starting April 1, down from ¥672.2 billion in the initial budget for the current fiscal year, amid its efforts to reduce wasteful spending.

The amount of total grant aid came to ¥154.2 billion, down 4.2 percent. While reducing aid for infrastructure projects, priority areas such as those related to the environment, human security issues and nongovernmental organization support saw an increase of ¥13 billion.

The amount of technical cooperation, meanwhile, stood at ¥148 billion, down 5 percent.

Of the ¥618.7 billion, the Foreign Ministry will handle the largest share of the ODA budget at ¥413.4 billion, followed by the Finance Ministry at ¥132.9 billion.

About ¥30 billion was allocated for reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, to which Japan had pledged fresh support.

In addition to the ¥49.9 billion the government included in an extra budget plan for fiscal 2009, assistance of about ¥80 billion will be provided as urgent support for the war-torn country.