by Daniel Ooko

    NAIROBI, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, who is set to leave the country for Japan Sunday for a four-day official visit, is expected to urge the Asian country to increase its assistance to the east African nation in key areas of energy, infrastructure and food security.

    President Kibaki, who will be accompanied by several ministers, will visit Japan to attend the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) to be held in Yokohama on May 28-30.

    Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula told Xinhua that President Kibaki is scheduled to hold a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda during which he will seek increased Japan assistance.

    Wetangula said the government has also laid out strategies that it wants Japan to implement to reduce the current trade imbalance between the two countries.

    "The president will meet with the Japanese prime minister and will deal with the Kenyan issues and I don't want to preempt that," Wetangula told Xinhua in an interview in Nairobi.

    "Japan is very heavily involved in our energy sector, we will discuss that I am sure. Japan has been a major supporter of our infrastructure development, and supporter of many of our developments programs," he said.

    Wetangula said the government wants Japan to provide support to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector to enable them increase their production capacity, cut flower exports as well as encourage Asian tourists to visit Kenya.

    Trade between the two countries is in Japan's favor where Kenya sells 1 million shillings (about 16,000 U.S. dollars) worth of exports for every 19 million shillings (306,000 dollars) worth of imports from the Asian country.

    It is estimated that 20 percent of roses to the Asian country come from Kenya, and visitors from Japan in 2007 stood at 20,000.

    "Sometimes Japan put money in our baskets to let us use in some of our programs that we choose. We will be able to discuss the enhancement of their kitty to Kenya," the minister said.

    "You know we have a problem of an escalating oil prices, we need to cushion the average Kenyan from these escalations," said Wetangula, who will be among the ministers accompanying President Kibaki to the TICAD meeting in Japan.

    The foreign minister also said the government had secured appointments with top Japanese officials to lobby for increased technical support for the flagship projects under Vision 2030.

    Kenya is the highest recipient of Official Development Assistance (ODA) from Japan in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    In 2007, Kenya received total ODA disbursements of 90 million dollars from Japan, of which 27.6 million dollars was in form of grant aid, technical assistance amounted to 21.7 million dollars while Yen loans were up to 41.4 million dollars.

    Wetangula said food insecurity would also top up in the meeting between President Kibaki and the Japanese premier.

    "Food production is going to be even more expensive. We are going to discuss the possibility of Japan giving us intervention in fertilizers and so on," said Wetangula.

    The east African nation is among African nations set to benefit from an emergency 100 million U.S. dollars food aid from Japan in response to the rising international prices.

    The minister said the food crisis will also be among the topics that will dominate the TICAD meeting, which is expected to bring together over 1,500 participates including 41 African leaders to discuss the way forward for the continent.

    "There is a whole host of engagements and programs between Japan and Africa but the focus for this meeting (TICAD) now is food production. That is the principle focus: food production and sustainability in Africa," he said.

    An official at the Japanese embassy in Nairobi told Xinhua on Friday that while the Japanese government is studying various policies for TICAD, including official development assistance to African nations, no decision has been made over the amount of aid.

    The TICAD comes as Japan tries to increase its presence in Africa -- rich in commodities such as rare metals -- through aid and lending.

    Tokyo is also keen to get support from African nations as it seeks a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

    TICAD is a post-cold war policy forum for African development initiated by Japan in 1993 with partners like the United Nations, United Nations Development Program and the World Bank.

    It's usually held every five years.