Japan EU relations

Prime Minister Taro Aso will head first to Prague for talks with the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek. The Czech Republic currently holds the rotating European Union presidency.

Aso will then meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday and deliver a policy speech on Japan-EU relations in Berlin.

During the visit, Aso and the European leaders are expected to affirm their commitment to the accord reached at last month's Group of 20 summit. It outlined how they would work together to kick-start the declining global economy and reform financial institutions.

It is also expected that Aso will urge his European colleagues to increase pressure on North Korea over its threat to conduct a second nuclear test. The communist state has said it will carry out the test unless the United Nations apologizes for condemning its rocket launch in early April.

Climate change is also likely to be discussed during the meetings, as nations prepare to develop by year's end a successor to the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty, which runs out in 2012.