The government will consider spending taxpayers' money on public works projects undertaken by financially weak public corporations in line with the reform of its fiscal investment and loan program, government officials said.

The government maintains that if gigantic public works projects continue to be financed by the fiscal investment and loan program, ailing public corporations will be unable to resolve management problems resulting from huge interest payments, the officials said.

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said recently that new sources to finance the construction of expressways -- other than government debts -- should be found.

On Monday, Miyazawa told a House of Councilors committee session that the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority, faced with interest-bearing debts of 3.8 trillion yen, is "a case in point" for the rehabilitation of public corporations.

Although Miyazawa did not refer to how to rehabilitate the authority, which is responsible for the construction and management of bridges linking Honshu and Shikoku, his statement was taken to indicate the future use of taxes to meet those ends.

The fiscal investment and loan program, widely seen as Japan's second budget because of its huge scale, is mainly financed by funds from the state-run postal savings and public pension programs.

Earlier this year, the Diet passed a package of bills to revamp the program into a leaner, market-oriented system from fiscal 2001, which begins April 1.