Hanoi - Vietnamese officials said Monday that government representatives will sign an agreement tomorrow resuming aid from Japan to Vietnam.

Japan had suspended all aid to Vietnam in December due to a corruption scandal on a Japanese-funded transportation project.

Tokyo  - The Japanese market started the week lower Monday as investors sold shares to lock in profits from the previous week's gains.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 151.91 points, or 1.76 per cent, to 8,475.06.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also down 15.91 points, or 1.93 per cent, to 808.62.

On currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar traded at 98.05-10 yen, up from Friday's 5 pm quote of 97.88-91 yen.

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Bangkok - Thailand's food exports to Japan rose 30 per cent last year, benefiting from the Japanese market's health concerns about Chinese imports, media reports said Sunday.

Thai exports to Japan in 2008 were valued at 100 billion baht (2.8 billion dollars) and could continue to rise this year if the Japanese market continued to be wary of chemical-contamination of Chinese food products, President of Thailand's National Food Institute Yuthasak Supasorn told the Thai News Agency (TNA).

Hamburg  - Japan are a win away from qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa after beating Bahrain 1-0 in the Asian qualifying zone on Saturday.

There was also an important win for North Korea, whose 2-0 victory against the United Arab Emirates took them to the top of Group B, while Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia also kept alive their hopes of making it to South Africa with victories.

Tokyo - The Japanese parliament on Friday passed a record 88.5-trillion-yen (902.74 billion dollars) budget for fiscal 2009.

With the budget passed, Prime Minister Taro Aso was expected to order the government next week to compile an extra budget for economic stimulus measures for the year that starts on April 1.

The upper house earlier Friday voted down the budget, which includes 1 trillion yen in special emergency reserves, because the opposition holds the majority of the House of Councillors.

But the more powerful lower house, which approved the budget last month, takes precedence on budgetary decisions, according to the constitution.