KYOTO, Japan - Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations agreed Thursday on the need to step up efforts to secure Afghanistan's borders and stabilize food and oil prices to avoid a global crisis.
The foreign ministers discussed the issues in a series of bilateral meetings and a working dinner on the first of two days of talks intended to lay the groundwork for the G8's annual summit, to be held in northern Japan next month.
Japanese officials briefing reporters said the discussions focused primarily on Afghanistan, climate change, food and oil prices and an expected announcement by North Korea on the status of its contentious nuclear program.
In a meeting with his Canadian counterpart, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura stressed the need for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and expressed his support for increased security in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region as part of global fight against terrorism.
David Emerson, the Canadian foreign minister, expressed his agreement with the need for greater security in Afghanistan, the officials said on condition of anonymity, citing summit policy.
Japan has been eager to promote discussion of Afghanistan, where it has pledged US$2 billion in aid and is floating ideas for additional assistance, such as law enforcement vehicles.
Fighting between Taliban-led insurgents and foreign and government forces has been surging across the south and east of the country, with nearly 2,000 people killed in insurgency-related violence so far in 2008.
Several of the ministers also commented on the need for a coordinated, global effort to keep oil and food prices from rising further, but did not offer specific proposals on how to do so, the officials said.
The Thursday meetings were overshadowed by expectations that North Korea would soon announce its nuclear programs to China and destroy the cooling tower at its shadowy nuclear reactor complex in Yongbyon.
China said Pyongyang would submit a declaration of its nuclear program on Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Kyoto, stressed the need to look closely at the report before reacting, or making any concessions.
"We will continue to work for verifiable denuclearization,'' she told reporters accompanying her on a trip that will also take her to South Korea and China over the weekend.
North Korea's failure to provide a full report of its nuclear programs at the end of last year has stalled talks on granting aid to the impoverished nation in return for its denuclearization.
But the United States has said North Korea is now ready, and in exchange has offered to remove the country from a list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
The possible U.S. delisting of North Korea has been met with caution by Japan, which wants to keep international pressure on Pyongyang until it has resolved questions over its abductions of more than a dozen Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s.
Rice said Thursday that the United States would not forget about the kidnappings, calling it a "major human rights issue'' that "is of great concern to Japan as well as the United States.''
Zimbabwe was also high on the agenda Thursday.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was facing ever deeper international isolation amid demands he postpone a runoff presidential election because of party violence and intimidation.
Rice said no electoral outcome would be acceptable and that Mugabe must allow a legitimate government to take power.
"Clearly, no runoff election that doesn't have the participation of opposition ... can be considered legitimate, no outcome can be considered legitimate,'' she said.
The Japanese and British foreign ministers made similar comments.
"It's not just an internal issue,'' British Foreign Minister David Miliband said, according to the officials.
Iran's nuclear ambitions were also a major point of discussion.
The European Union froze the assets this week of Iran's largest bank over Tehran's refusal to back off uranium enrichment, which Washington and its allies worry could be used to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran has yet to formally respond to a package of trade and economic incentives to make a deal. The offers were made June 14 by the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany.
The G8 members are the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Japan, Britain, Italy and Canada.
