Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Spanta met Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Monday ahead of an international meeting on the reconstruction of the war-torn nation.

Spanta will take part in a two-day meeting from Tuesday of the Afghanistan Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, an international committee that oversees implementation of reconstruction plans.

During the meeting, Fukuda expressed Japan's determination to continue to support the rebuilding of Afghanistan, including through its controversial mission in the Indian Ocean as part of the US-led "war on terror."

"As the host of the Group of Eight (G8) summit, Japan will coordinate international efforts to support the reconstruction" of Afghanistan, Fukuda said, as quoted by Jiji Press.

Japan, which will host the G8 summit of major industrial nations in July, is hosting this week's meeting "to reconfirm the commitment of the international community to assist Afghanistan," a foreign ministry statement said earlier.

Spanta also met separately with Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura.

Japan is a major contributor to Afghanistan's rebuilding efforts, particularly initiatives to bolster Kabul's police force and to fight drug production and trafficking.

Tokyo has pledged more than 140 billion yen (1.2 billion dollars) to help Afghanistan after a US-led coalition ousted the extremist Taliban regime following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

But Japan, officially pacifist since World War II, has seen controversy over military help to the US-led "war on terror."

Fukuda's government last month had to use nearly unprecedented parliamentary procedures to restart a naval mission supporting the war effort in Afghanistan amid protests from Japan's opposition parties.