Japan pledged Thursday to donate 60 million U.S. dollars to Africa by the end of next month.

At an opening ceremony of a conference on African development in Ethiopia, Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki said the donation will be used to support security, governance, political transitions and reconstruction in conflict-hit African countries.

"As we believe there will not be stability in the world in the 21st century unless the issues in Africa are resolved, Japan is committed to African development, with peace consolidation being one of the fundamental bases," he told delegates from some 100 countries and international groups at the meeting.

The two-day conference is co-chaired by Japan, the United Nations, the World Bank and the Washington-based Global Coalition for Africa.

It is part of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), a Japanese initiative set up in 1993 to drum up international support for Africa.

Source: Xinhua