Taku Yamasaki, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Thursday that the LDP will draft additional economic measures next week.

Yamasaki said the package will be included in the planned fourth round of economic pump-priming steps to be announced by the government by March 20. Yamasaki made the remark after meeting with Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. However, he declined to comment on the contents of the package.

He also said the LDP will soon begin drafting the fifth round of measures to give another boost to the faltering economy. "I think the new package should be mapped out by incorporating not only opinions of our allied partners (the Social Democratic Party and New Party Sakigake) but also those of opposition parties," Yamasaki told reporters.

Hashimoto plans to have the new stimulus plan drawn up in line with the Fiscal Restructural Reform Law, which stipulates that the issue of deficit-covering bonds be ended by fiscal 2002, he said.

Hashimoto hinted in late February that the government will map out a large pump-priming plan by early April to quell mounting criticism from abroad that his administration has been lax in boosting domestic consumption.

Hashimoto said at a Lower House Budget Committee session that he was seriously considering Japan's actions, which he will take to the Asia-Europe Meeting to be held in London on April 3 and 4.