A ruling Liberal Democratic Party defense panel is planning to compile a proposal this month that would allow Japan to exercise collective self-defense to further strengthen the Japan-U.S. security alliance, LDP sources said Saturday.

The government currently holds the view that while Japan has the right to collective self-defense under international law, exercising that right would violate Article 9 of the Constitution, which renounces the use of force to settle international disputes.

The LDP's Division of National Defense plans to suggest that the legislature enact a basic law for national security to change the government's official view so that Japan can exercise collective self-defense and participate in U.N. collective-security arrangements, the sources said.

Collective self-defense is a provision guaranteed under the U.N. Charter allowing one country to help defend another that is under armed attack, even if not under attack itself.

The division believes Japan's refusal to exercise the right to collective self-defense hampers defense cooperation with the United States even though strengthened bilateral cooperation is essential for securing peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

Lifting the ban on collective self-defense has been proposed by a group of U.S. defense experts led by Richard Armitage, U.S. President George W. Bush's choice of deputy secretary of state, and by Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

The panel also plans to propose legislation allowing mobilization of the Self-Defense Forces to deal with emergencies based on the government's studies in the area since 1977 and to tighten steps to counter armed foreign infiltrators, the sources said.

It also plans to propose upgrading the Defense Agency to ministerial status. The panel will submit the proposal to LDP policy chief Shizuka Kamei and other party executives and press the government to study it.