Japan is considering lifting economic sanctions on Pakistan and India, with a view to helping the two nations better deal with increasing instability due to the continued military strikes in Afghanistan.
Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka told a news conference Friday morning that the government is "considering the matter (of resuming aid to Pakistan) from various points of view."
Japan has frozen new grants and loans, except for humanitarian aid, to Pakistan since the country conducted nuclear tests in 1998. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf asked Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi earlier this week to lift the overall sanction.