Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori virtually acknowledged in a remark made Saturday during the taping of an NHK television program that the next Lower House elections will be held June 25.

"While that won't be the case if factors affecting (a June 25 election plan) emerge, I don't think that stream is likely to change," Mori said, referring to a plan, already suggested by many other politicians, to hold the lower house poll June 25.

Mori also acknowledged that the coalition of his Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party faces public judgment in the election.

He asked for public support for the coalition, saying: "Stabilization of the Upper House stabilizes politics. The coalition of the LDP, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party is the Cabinet that gave the most effective results."

Mori expressed his resolve to maintain the three-way coalition after the election.

The LDP lacks a majority in the Upper House but its coalition with New Komeito and the New Conservative Party forms a combined majority in the chamber. Since its devastating loss in the 1989 Upper House poll, the LDP has failed to recover a majority in the chamber.

Senior LDP officials said Tuesday that Mori will dissolve the lower and more powerful chamber of the Diet on June 2 for a general election June 25.

The next general election must be held by mid-October.