The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Tokyo

Japan's new Prime Minister Taro Aso rushed Thursday to a United Nations summit in New York less than a day after taking office, hoping to show Japan as an active global player.

Aso, a conservative former foreign minister, flew out to address the UN General Assembly later Thursday New York time. He is the first Japanese premier to go to the UN summit in three years due to political turmoil in Tokyo.

Aso , who has also become chairman of the Group of Eight major industrial powers, was expected to offer a role by Japan in curbing the financial turmoil that has spread across the globe following the collapse of Wall Street firms.

He was also expected to make a new push for a permanent seat for Japan, the world's second largest economy , on the UN Security Council.

Japan's previous bid to join the powerful body flopped due to strong opposition by China, the only Asian nation in the elite club.

Aso took office on Wednesday after the ruling party overwhelmingly chose him to replace Yasuo Fukuda, whose popularity tumbled after he raised the costs of health care for the elderly amid a faltering economy. He takes office as tough general elections loom against an increasingly strong opposition.

Aso comes from the opposite wing of the Liberal Democratic Party to Fukuda, a foreign policy dove who throughout his career has worked to repair Japan's historically tense relations with China and South Korea.

As foreign minister, Aso spoke of the concept of an "arc of freedom of prosperity" encompassing democracies in Asia such as India, along with the United States, Australia and NATO members.

His speech was widely interpreted as an attempt to move Japan in a new way of foreign-policy thinking that excludes China and Russia from its main interests.