The ruling coalition launched a new conference Monday in an attempt to make the compiling of budgets and other fiscal policymaking more focused.

The inaugural session of the Leaders' Conference on Financial Issues was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence, with Cabinet ministers and leading politicians from the ruling coalition exchanging views on fiscal policies.

The conference will hold two more sessions by the end of July and set a criteria in early August for budget requests for fiscal 2001.

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori set up the conference to "exercise his leadership" over the process of compiling budgets, which has been "inflexible" because of the vested interests of government ministries and agencies.

During the meeting, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said the fiscal 2001 budget should be made efficient enough to reduce government bond issues from this year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa said.

Taichi Sakaiya, head of the Economic Planning Agency, was quoted as saying the fiscal 2001 budget should focus on four areas -- information technology, environmental protection, urban infrastructure and the aging of society.

Shizuka Kamei, Liberal Democratic Party policy chief, argued that an improvement in distribution networks is as important as IT, adding that infrastructure in agricultural and fishery areas needs to be improved as well as in urban areas, Nakagawa said.

The conference will continue to examine priorities for the 2001 budget after ministries and government agencies submit their budget requests to the Finance Ministry by the end of August, Nakagawa said.