PARIS (Kyodo) French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde on Tuesday commended Japan for its plan to buy a large portion of the eurozone bonds soon to be issued to help stabilize Ireland's troubled financial system, Japanese officials said.
Lagarde said at a meeting with financial services minister Shozaburo Jimi, now on a Paris visit, that France deeply appreciates the Japanese plan to buy some 20 percent of the bonds being issued this month by the European Financial Stability Facility.
She was also quoted as saying the Japanese expression of its readiness to help bail out Ireland has enhanced international confidence in the euro.
The EFSF, a Luxembourg-based rescue fund for nations that use the euro, is to issue debt worth several billions of euros to finance the cost of an international bailout of Ireland.
Earlier in the day in Tokyo, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Japan is "thinking about purchasing an amount that tops 20 percent" of the bonds being floated by the EFSF.