Former Construction Minister Shizuka Kamei said Monday that he will try to gather as many members as possible within the Liberal Democratic Party to become a driving engine to support Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's administration.

"I don't mean that expanding our group itself is significant, but such a move may be necessary considering dynamics within the party," Kamei told a news conference in Tokyo. Kamei is currently seeking to form a new faction within the LDP by merging his 25-member group with other groups, such as a faction led by Masakuni Murakami known as the "former Watanabe" faction.

The merger between Kamei's group and Murakami's faction seems highly likely. In December, four conservative groups within the LDP jointly launched a new study group, led by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama, to gain greater influence over party leadership. Kamei's group is one of those four groups participating in the league, which currently has 102 members, and he has been wooing the other three groups to join hands to become a major faction.

He said that Kajiyama will respond to his offer for the merger within a few days. "After receiving Kajiyama's response, we would like to mark a new start," he said. But he also said that participation of all the groups within the league is not a precondition to launching a new faction, indicating that his group may launch a new group even if it can have only Murakami's faction as a partner for the merger.

Kamei also said that his group will support the new LDP-Liberal Party alliance, adding that he is expecting to have a full-scale reshuffle of the Cabinet and the party leadership later this year.