31.   Hashimoto was international trade minister before becoming prime minister earlier this year.

32.   Hashimoto will appoint former Labor Minister Mitsuo Horiuchi as trade minister and veteran LDP politician Kenzo Muraoka as chief cabinet secretary, newspapers said.

33.   He cited a recent decision by Ran Cohen, the new trade minister, to suspend financing for new factories in the West Bank and Gaza.

34.   He said the admnistration had scheduled over the next six months regional meetings of trade ministers, transport ministers and telecommunications ministers.

35.   He spoke at a meeting of Latin American and Asian trade ministers in Santiago.

36.   He stayed in the government, however, and in subsequent governments, served as trade minister, housing minister, infrastructure minister and finally foreign minister.

37.   His new trade minister, German Gref, is a self-confessed economic liberal.

38.   If the trade ministers depart Seattle without addressing the controversy, their inaction could revive a competing international negotiation, the Biosafety Protocol.

39.   In a separate briefing, trade minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said the government will unveil a second supplementary budget in the fall to spur growth.