TOKYO -- Ministers and officials from 13 Asian nations gathered in Tokyo on Monday for a meeting focusing on Japan's development aid to the region, a budget increasingly under threat from its stagnant economy and political opposition.

The meeting of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) together with South Korea, China and Japan is meant to follow up Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's pledge in January to strengthen East Asian economic ties.

Since his January speech in Singapore announcing the initiative, however, domestic pressure on the government to cut its official development assistance (ODA) for a third straight year has mounted, helped by a high-profile aid money scandal.

Despite being the cornerstone of Japan's foreign policy, the ODA budget was slashed by three percent last year and a further 10 percent this year as politicians question why Japan's recession-wracked economy should fund development in potential economic rivals such as fast-growing China.

The Foreign Ministry, which hosted Monday's meeting, is fighting off pressure for a cut in next year's aid budget and attending Asian ministers will be backing its argument that Japan's ODA budget -- the world's second-biggest after the United States -- is vital for economic stability in the region.

"We know about some temporary setbacks in the Japanese economy. But the prosperity of East Asia, especially the ASEAN countries, is of big interest to Japan," Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said in an interview with Japan's Jiji news agency on Sunday. "Through the Japanese ODA, we will be able to promote economic development and job creation for our people in Mindanao, the poorest region of the country."

Koizumi proposed the meeting in January to improve cooperation within the "ASEAN Plus Three" group and in an attempt to reassert Japan's leadership in the region, under threat from a rising China and its own economic weakness.

But the image of Japan's overseas aid program has since been battered by a scandal over alleged bid rigging that led to the arrest early this month of three executives at Mitsui & Co., Japan's second-biggest trading house.

That has strengthened the hand of politicians who want to see further cuts in ODA, an argument that has support among a public skeptical of the strategic importance of the huge aid budget.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said earlier this year that Japan lost its position as the world's leading aid donor in 2001, partly due to a weaker yen.

Its ODA totaled around $9.7 billion compared to the United States' $10.9 billion, Reuters reported.