The invention refers to a catalyst for assisting solid particulate matter (soot) combustion, in particular for the catalytic coating of a Diesel particulate filter (DPF), having a platinum group metal (PGM) component and a metal oxide component. The metal oxide component can be CuO-La 2 CuO 4 , and the PGM component can be Pt, Pt-Pd or Pd. This catalytic composition is allowing to decrease NO 2 emissions during regeneration of catalyzed DPF while showing comparable or even better activity in soot oxidation regarding reference state-of- the-art CDPFs having higher/comparable PGM loading. The addition of cobalt oxide or cobalt and iron oxides to this formulation further decreases NO 2 emission to the same/lower level than for non-catalyzed or fuel-additive DPFs while still keeping the high activity in soot oxidation. The new catalysts revealed high stability against deactivation during the most severe regenerations.