In an opening speech at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), to which Japan has attracted more than 40 African heads of state, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda also said Japan would set up a new $2.5 billion fund to help Japanese firms invest more in Africa.

"If I were to liken the history of African development to a volume of literature, then what we are about to do now is open a new page entitled the 'Century of African Growth'," Fukuda said, adding that developing transportation infrastructure was key to boosting growth there.

The three-day conference in Yokohama, near Tokyo, is a litmus test for Japan's efforts to help Africa as it seeks more mineral resources from the continent.

Japan also hopes to win support for its long-standing bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council -- a topic that Fukuda repeatedly mentioned in bilateral meetings with African leaders on the sidelines of the conference.

Some 2,500 participants, representing 52 African nations and including delegates from international agencies and activists such as Irish rock star Bono, have gathered at TICAD as Africa faces new challenges of soaring food and energy prices, which have led to riots in some countries.

This is the fourth TICAD conference, which has been held every five years since 1993, yet Japan has lagged behind rivals China and India in accessing Africa's rich bounty of metals and oil. Japan's trade with Africa is a meagre 2 percent of its overall trade.

"Africa has come to Japan with high expectations," said Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who is also head of the African Union. "Those expectations revolve around the success of this summit in setting a solid base for a new, more dynamic relationship between Africa and Japan."

For Africa, closer ties with Japan means not only getting more aid and investment from the world's second-largest economy but also getting its voice heard on the international stage, especially since Japan chairs the Group of Eight meetings of rich nations this year, including a leaders' summit in July.

Fukuda vowed to double Japan's development assistance to Africa over the next five years, bringing its five-year average annual development assistance to $1.8 billion by 2012 from the current $900 million.

Aid experts and activists worry that donor countries may fail to meet their promise made at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005, which included raising aid to developing countries by $50 billion per year by 2010, half of which is for Africa.

Japan slipped to fifth place from third in overall overseas aid spending in 2007 at $7.7 billion, down 30 percent from the previous year, according to OECD figures, as Tokyo tried to curb the country's bulging public debt.

"We think that the world is really watching Japan," anti-poverty advocate Bono said on Tuesday. "At this year's G8 summit, we get to find out if a new Japan is coming."

WANTED: INVESTMENT AND TRADE

Delegates at TICAD hope to go beyond just aid.

"There are two important areas that need urgent attention which can help reinvigorate our relationship, and these are trade and investment," said Botswana's vice president, Mompati Merafhe.

"While we recognise Japan's recent efforts to improve trade relations with Africa, a lot still needs to be done."

To foster Japanese businesses in Africa, Fukuda said Japan would dispatch a large-scale economic mission, comprising leaders from the public and private sector, later this year.

As part of Japan's pledge to double investment in Africa, Fukuda announced a $2.5 billion scheme that will directly finance businesses in Africa and guarantee the financing provided by Japanese banks for businesses there.

Fukuda also stressed the need for a network of roads in Africa, vowing to give up to $4 billion of yen loans to the continent over the next five years to improve its infrastructure.

Besides talking about how to boost growth in Africa, delegates also stressed the need to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight globally agreed targets to be reached by 2015.

As this year marks the halfway point to achieve the goals, which include halving the number of people living in poverty on less than $1 a day and providing universal primary education, concerns are growing that most countries may fail to meet them.