TOKYO. Dec 11: Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Japan could expand its 30-bll-lion dollar fund set aside to aid financially-troubled Asian nations, says AFP.

Japan has already sent missions to Asian nations to discuss local economic conditions for mobilisation of the fund and plans to start offering aid "as early as by the end of the year," Miyazawa said.

Even if the fund "proves insufficient, we want to keep the programme as procurement (of funds) would not be difficult," he told a session of the upperhouse budget committee.

The minister announced the so-called 30-billion-dollar Miyazawa initiative when he attended a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised nations in Washington in October.

The aid package was • initially proposed for Indonesia. South Korea. Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, but such countries as Vietnam have asked for help under the scheme.

Miyazawa also told the committee Thursday that he

wanted to exchange opinions with other G7 nations on monitoring hedge funds through operations of commercial banks that put up money to such funds.

Miyazawa said it was his personal view and he needed to "listen to what finance ministers of other countries are thinking."

G7 finance ministers will meet in Germany in February.