Tokyo, Rabi'II 21, 1436, February 10, 2015, SPA -- Japan revised its foreign aid charter Tuesday to approve the use of the country's official development assistance to support foreign forces in non-combat operations, dpa reported. The first review since 2003 enabled the charter to effectively lift a ban on assisting other countries' armed forces in operations such as disaster relief, infrastructure building and coast guard activities. For many years, Japan's development assistance has been primarily aimed at infrastructure building and poverty reduction in developing countries, and provided in such forms as loans, grants and technical cooperation. Aid to foreign militaries is still bound by terms in the charter which are designed to avoid the use of aid to promote international conflicts, Tokyo said. Asked about potential aid to developing countries for the procurement of patrol ships, an unnamed Foreign Ministry told the Kyodo News agency that Tokyo would study individual requests case by case, on condition that such assistance will not be diverted for combat purposes. --SPA 10:36 LOCAL TIME 07:36 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w