Japan decided Tuesday to give Iraq 10 billion yen (96 million US dollars) in grant aid to improve its public services, such as hospitals and the police, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said in Tokyo.

Of the amount, 8.45 billion yen (81 million dollars) will go to health and home affairs ministries of the Iraqi interim government as funds to buy 700 ambulances, 150 police buses and 500 police motorcycles to improve the security situation all over Iraq, the minister said.

Japan will also allocate 866 million yen (8.3 million dollars) for the government of the southern Iraqi province of Muthana, where Japanese troops are stationed, to buy medical equipment for 32 local primary health centers.

The remaining 658 million yen (6.3 million dollars) will be for the city of Samawah, the provincial capital, to buy garbage-collecting equipment such as vehicles and containers, Machimura said.

Japan has dispatched about 600 troops from the Ground Self-Defense Force to Samawah for reconstruction and assistance work.

Source: Xinhua