Tokyo - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda plans to travel to Europe at the beginning of June to seek support from fellow Group of Eight (G8) nations on Japan's climate change proposals ahead of the G8 summit, Japan's top government spokesman said Thursday.

Fukuda was scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy during his June 1-5 trip, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.

Japan is hosting the summit of seven of the world's leading economies and Russia from July 7-9 in the northern town of Toyako. The fight against global warming was expected to be a focus of the meeting involving Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Tokyo is pushing for halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

During his European trip, Fukuda was also to deliver a speech June 3 on tackling soaring food prices at a meeting of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome and hold talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Machimura said. (dpa)