The government has announced it will provide an additional $2.925 million to a U.N.-backed tribunal that is trying Khmer Rouge leaders accused of the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians in the 1970s.

"The government decided, despite its financial difficulties, to support the Khmer Rouge tribunal at an important juncture," as its most important case — involving three senior Khmer Rouge leaders — started Monday and the ruling on an appeal in another case will be handed down Feb. 3, the Japanese Embassy in Phnom Penh said.

Japan is the single largest donor to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, as the tribunal is formally known, and has accounted for nearly half the total pledges and donations to date.

Cambodia's judiciary approved the tribunal in 2006, and it had spent $109.2 million by the end of 2010, according to spokesman Neth Pheaktra.

Japan views the Khmer Rouge tribunal as a way of preventing similar atrocities, delivering justice to the victims, and strengthening the rule of law in Cambodia, the embassy said.

"It is important to proceed with the tribunal in a fair, efficient and expeditious manner, given the advanced age and frail health of the people charged and the long overdue justice for Cambodians," it said.