EU's Ashton to visit Japan amid euro crisis

(TOKYO) - EU foreign affairs supremo Catherine Ashton is to visit Japan next week, the foreign ministry in Tokyo said Friday, as the bloc looks for ways to boost its debt bailout fund.

Ashton's visit, which begins Tuesday, comes after eurozone leaders hammered out a deal aimed at providing new funds to cash-strapped Greece in a bid to stem the region's crippling debt troubles.

In the hours after the deal was struck, eyes turned rapidly to emerging nations, including China, and to other Asian countries like Japan as possible sources of cash for the expanded European Financial Stability Fund.

The value of the EFSF is set to quadruple to one trillion euros ($1.4 trillion), but with governments at home wary of putting in more money, Europe is looking further afield.

EFSF head Klaus Regling was in China on Friday and was due in Japan at the weekend, when he is expected to press Tokyo to boost its contribution.

Tokyo has already bought 20 percent of the bonds issued by the fund and has expressed a willingness to buy more, but has so far shied away from any firm committment.

The foreign ministry said Ashton's itinerary would include a meeting with Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba at which the two would "exchange views on Japan-EU relations... as well as common challenges facing Japan and the EU."

The ministry said Ashton would also visit areas of the northeast of the country that were hit by the huge tsunami that devastated the coast in March, leaving 20,000 people dead or missing.