"Japan achieved a swift economic recovery after World War II and became the world's second largest economy," Environment Minister Yuriko Koike told a meeting between Japanese officials and those from 20 Arab countries.

"But Japan put too much stress on economic development and victimised its rich nature," she said.

Koike singled out Japan's first major outbreak of disease caused by pollution, Minamata disease, which killed hundreds of people, disabled thousands and caused birth defects in the 1950s and 1960s.

The disease, which paralyses the central nervous system, emerged after mercury was discarded by a chemical company in the bay of Minamata, some 800 kilometres (500 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

"Japan's miraculous recovery coincided with the emergence of environmental pollution," Koike said.

"I sincerely hope that you, environment ministers, will learn from the Japanese mistakes and work together by strengthening environmental protection measures."

Japan's foreign ministry ambassador for global environment affairs, Yoshiki Mine, expressed concern about the impact of mounting tension in the Middle East on environment cooperation of the region.

"Political improvement is fundamentally important for progress in environment support in the Middle East," said Mine.

"Political confrontation is to restrict the region's broad cooperation in environment," he said, referring to stalled Middle East peace process after Israel killed Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Mine also said Tokyo intended to focus on environment projects in its contribution to the reconstruction of Iraq.

"Environment is seen as an important field in the Iraqi reconstruction, which is an important task of the international community. And our country is positively engaged in that field," Mine said.

"Japan is now considering providing support for environment projects such as human resource development and technology transfer," he said.

The Japanese government said Friday that most of the 1.5 billion dollars promised by Tokyo for Iraqi reconstruction projects would be spent on rebuilding shattered energy, health and sanitation infrastructure.

TERRA.WIRE