A Japanese daily says that the United States, China, Russia and Japan have agreed to provide their share of energy aid to North Korea as pledged in the six-party accord of February 13th, following South Korea's provision of its initial installment of heavy fuel oil.

The Mainichi Shimbun reported Wednesday that Tokyo's decision was to minimize the impact of the Japanese abductee issue on the denuclearization process.

The daily also reported that, in energy working-group talks early this month, Pyongyang requested that half of the energy aid to be provided by the six-party countries take the form of repairs and equipment for its thermal and hydraulic power generation facilities. Under the accord, the parties agreed to provide the North with 950-thousand tons of heavy fuel oil or an equivalent amount of energy aid.

China is mulling the delivery schedule for its heavy fuel oil aid as it monitors North Korea's progress in carrying out the second-phase denuclearization steps.

Meanwhile, the United States has proposed to provide small generators for hospitals while Russia has offered to repair thermal power facilities and provide natural gas.