Japan to fund Afghan police salaries

TOKYO, March 8 (UPI) -- Japan will pay the salaries of all 82,000 police officers in Afghanistan in a bid to help rebuild the country, sources say.

The assistance, worth $142 million, will cover the police officers' salaries for about six months until the Afghan presidential elections, tentatively slated for August, unnamed sources told Japan's Kyodo news agency.

The Japanese commitment is unusual because Tokyo's official development assistance is rarely used to fund the salaries of a recipient's public employees, the sources said.

In addition to paying for police protection, Japan is also readying donations of $102 million in anti-poverty funds and $50 million to help stage the presidential poll, Kyodo said.

Sources said Tokyo is expected to announce the funding Monday when Motohide Yoshikawa, Japan's special envoy in charge of aid for Afghanistan and Pakistan, meets in Washington with U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke.