Aid agreed for ex-Soviet Union

(First Edition)

Tokyo (Reuter) - The world's wealthy countries yesterday agreed that fresh emergency aid was needed to help former Soviet republics deal with severe food, medical and energy shortages. Japan, host of the two-day Tokyo Conference on Assistance to New Independent States, pledged dollars 100m (pounds 63) while the US promised dollars 260m for food aid and dollars 14m in medical supplies.

Delegates agreed that it was time to shift to a more permanent arrangement for the distribution of long-term aid on an individual-country basis. Participants from 70 countries are at the meeting.