The Japanese prime minister and his cabinet are to donate a portion of their salaries this month to help a cash-strapped fund which compensates war-time sex slaves.

Many demand that Tokyo pay them directly

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and 17 other ministers will donate 10% of their July earnings to help fill a shortfall in the Asian Women's Fund.

The private fund is about 12m yen short of what it needs to pay 10 of about 290 "comfort women" from South Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan, who have applied for but not yet received compensation.

The cabinet's donation will raise 3.27 million yen ($27,250).

'Atonement money'

An estimated 200,000 women from across Asia were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II.

Japan set up the fund in 1995 and it receives most of its donations from the Japanese public. It closed its doors to applications for the money at the end of May.

But many former sex slaves have refused to apply to the fund, arguing that the Japanese Government should pay them directly.

Japan, however, argues that official compensation was dealt with by post-war treaties.

Tokyo has also not offered an official apology to former "comfort women", and refused to even recognise them until 1992. Two years later, they were mentioned for the first time in school text books.