TOKYO. May 4: Japan will set up a 1 O-billion-yen (93-miI-lion-dollar) fund at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to reduce poverty in developing Asia-Pacific countries, a report said today, reports AFP.

Tokyo will propose the fund at the annual ADB meeting set for this weekend in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. and wait for approval from the bank's board In late May, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

The fund, which would be the third sponsored by Japan at the ADB. would help provide basic social services to the region's poor, and support the bank's lending and poverty reduction programmes run by nongovernmental organisations. It said.

The government has already earmarked 10 billion yen for the fund in its budget for the current financial year starting April, it said.