Japan says it now plans to contribute up to one-billion dollars to the international consortium financing the building of light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea.

The Japanese Foreign Minister, Keizo Obuchi, told parliament Japan was trying to meet the target -- almost twenty five per cent of the project's costs -- despite its own severe financial constraints.

Correspondents say the Asian economic crisis has raised concerns about cost sharing for the North Korean reactors, with South Korea telling its partners in Japan, the United States and the European Union, it wanted to reduce its committment.

North Korea agreed in l994 to dismantle its own nuclear programme -- which the United States feared could produce weapons-grade material -- in exchange for two modern nuclear power plants