Aso denies report he's shelved election plan

Prime Minister Taro Aso on Monday denied a media report that he has notified a senior ruling Liberal Democratic Party member he will not dissolve the House of Representatives for a general election "for the time being."

On Sunday night, Aso held informal talks with Akihiro Ota, leader of the LDP's coalition partner, New Komeito, raising speculation he may have expressed his resolve to prioritize working out economic stimulus measures rather than calling a snap election.

Ota is likely to have called for an early election during the meeting, given that the party's power base, the major lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, is gearing up to hold the race Nov. 30.

Aso insisted he had "neither ordered nor called" anyone, when asked by a reporter to confirm a newspaper article that Aso expressed his intention to push back the election date in a phone call to a senior LDP lawmaker on Sunday.

"Not at all. . . . I think no one received a phone call (from me) yesterday," Aso said.

No general election need be held until September 2009, but Aso took office in late September amid expectations that he would dissolve the Lower House for a general election in the following few months.

Aso is expected to make a final decision on an election date possibly at the end of this week or early November after seeing how deliberations on the bill to extend Japan's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean pan out.

Meanwhile, with the prospects for an immediate election dimming, the Democratic Party of Japan appears to be adopting a tougher line than before against the ruling coalition in managing Diet affairs.

The DPJ said it would not vote Tuesday on a bill to extend the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission at an opposition-controlled House of Councilors panel.

The refusal, which Susumu Yanase, the DPJ's Diet affairs chief in the Upper House, conveyed to his LDP counterpart, Seiji Suzuki, in a meeting Monday morning, means that passage of the bill through the Diet on Thursday, as envisioned by ruling lawmakers, is unlikely.

Although the DPJ remains opposed to the refueling mission, the party had recently adopted a more cooperative stance toward Aso to ensure smooth Diet proceedings in the hope that helping him to clear his priorities would lead him to call an election at an early date.

Yanase said that he told Suzuki, "We have been cooperating (with the ruling parties) on the assumption that the Lower House will be dissolved, but the situation is moving toward a delay. The ministers' replies in the (Upper House) committee were also insufficient."

The ruling coalition had initially been expecting the bill to be put to a vote at the Upper House panel on Tuesday and then to a vote in an Upper House plenary session on Wednesday.

While the bill was likely to be voted down by the Upper House, which is dominated by the opposition parties, the ruling parties had hoped to hold an overriding second vote in the Lower House, which they control, on Thursday.

The bill passed the Lower House on Tuesday.