Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed concern over the current oil price
and called for greater transparency in the oil market when they met in Berlin Sunday.
Fukuda said the rapid rise in oil prices had to be taken seriously and that
market signals had to be heeded.
There was a need for more investment in exploiting crude reserves and increased
efforts to save energy.
Merkel expressed support for a French initiative to coordinate the approach of
the industrialized world to rising energy prices, although this had to be
goal-oriented and durable.
The German chancellor called for greater transparency in the oil sector, from
crude recovery to trade in petroleum products.
Fukuda is at the start of a series of visits to European members of the Group
of Eight (G8), ahead of the annual G8 summit in Toyako on Hokkaido island in
early July.
Japan succeeded Germany as president of the G8 at the start of the year.
Japan has taken over many of the German G8 themes - climate change, aid to
Africa and intensive dialogue with the emerging economic powers China, India and Brazil.
Food security, in the face of rising world fuel prices, is another topic on the
Toyako agenda.
Merkel said she expected an important signal to be sent by the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization this week regarding the growing crisis over food
shortages.
There should be no competition for land between food and biofuels, Merkel said,
according to dpa.