The Foreign Ministry has set up an advisory panel to make recommendations on reviewing Japan's official development assistance to China, with its inaugural meeting scheduled for Wednesday, the ministry said Monday.

The move is a first step toward implementing a plan already conveyed to Beijing in which Tokyo may review its ODA due to growing domestic opposition to aiding China, which now has high economic growth and continues to boost military spending.

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono revealed the plan in May during a meeting in Tokyo with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, who urged Japan to keep its ODA intact.

The 15-member panel will compile recommendations by the end of this year, the ministry said in a statement. Its members comprise business leaders, academics and representatives of nongovernmental organizations as well as the mass media.

A ministry official said the ministry will compile ODA policy guidelines on China based on the recommendations and will begin using them to determine assistance in fiscal 2001, which begins next April.

The ministry has been working to issue country-by-country guidelines for extending ODA since November, and has already completed them for six Asian and African countries.

But with China it will be the first time the ministry has set up an advisory panel to carry out the process.

Issuing the guidelines is part of Japan's initiative to implement ODA more effectively and with more transparency in a bid to win public support for overseas aid as fiscal conditions deteriorate at home.

Last year, Japan announced a five-year ODA policy outline vowing to put more emphasis on national and diplomatic interests in extending aid, to promote greater disclosure and to continue focusing on East Asian nations.