G8 foreign ministers open meeting

TOKYO, June 26 (UPI) -- The G8 foreign ministers meeting in Kyoto will ask Afghanistan to do more to check corruption and drug trafficking, a Japanese official said Thursday.

The foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations, whose Thursday meeting in Kyoto comes ahead of the summit next month in Hokkaido, Japan, will also seek to send a "very strong message" on the North Korean and Iranian nuclear issues and discuss the Middle East peace process, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said

Other issues will include situations in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, Kyodo reported.

In the case of Afghanistan, the ministers will seek to ensure aid pledges especially those meant to strengthen the Afghan-Pakistani border areas are met, the Japanese news agency said.

The North Korean denuclearization effort could become the focus of the meeting as the communist country was expected Thursday to submit its over-due disclosure of its nuclear activities, Kyodo reported. That, in turn, will lead the United States to take steps to remove North Korea from its list of terrorism-sponsoring nations.