Former Prime Ministers Morihiro Hosokawa and Tsutomu Hata announced Friday that they have agreed to form a new political group in the Lower House before the end of the year.

Hosokawa, who quit the largest opposition party Shinshinto in June, and Hata, head of the Taiyo Party, told a news conference that they plan to invite independents in the Lower House who also defected from Shinshinto to join with Taiyo Party members to create the new parliamentary group. They were joined by Ryuichi Doi, a Lower House member of another minor opposition group, the Democratic Reform Party. Members of the DRP will also join the new group.

In a joint statement they said they will begin "full-scale discussions with other like-minded lawmakers" to form a new party in the future. Hosokawa had initially aimed to form a parliamentary group not only with the Taiyo Party, but also with the No. 2 opposition Democratic Party of Japan, political sources said.

Given the strong calls within the DPJ for independence, however, Hosokawa decided to first create a new group with 10 Taiyo Party members and other defectors from Shinshinto, the sources said.

As well as forming the new grouping, Hosokawa said he plans to file a report on launching a new party, which would include himself and a number of close followers, with the Home Affairs Ministry by the end of the year, so that he can secure official political party subsidies for 1998.

Hosokawa also met Friday morning with Kunio Hatoyama, deputy leader of the DPJ and Eijiro Hata, secretary general of the Taiyo Party. They agreed to include Tsutomu Hata and DPJ leader Naoto Kan in a forum designed to discuss the establishment of a wider political framework to take power from the Liberal Democratic Party.