Lower House lawmaker Kenshiro Matsunami is asking the chairman of the House of Representatives' ethics panel to convene the council to deal with a scandal over Matsunami's links with the criminal underworld.

Matsunami, 56, asked Seisuke Okuno on Thursday for an opportunity to tell the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics his side of the story, in which a yakuza-linked construction firm paid the salaries of two of his secretaries.

He handed Okuno documents concerning the case and asked for an investigation, saying he wants to clear parts of the allegations that are "unreasonable."

Four opposition parties presented a nonbinding resolution to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, urging Matsunami to forfeit his seat.

During a meeting Thursday of the Lower House Steering Committee, the opposition parties called for the resolution to be adopted during the day's plenary session.

But the ruling coalition argued that Matsunami has asked to speak to the ethics council. Committee Chairman Yoshinori Ono agreed, saying that procedures need to be followed properly when discussing matters related to a lawmaker's status.

Matsunami, a member of the New Conservative Party, admitted last week that the construction firm paid 2.75 million yen as part of his secretaries' salaries between March 1997 and February 1998. He claimed he put an end to the practice after finding out the firm's chairman belonged to a criminal organization.

He also admitted calling the Osaka Prefectural Police at the request of the firm's chairman about a bid-rigging investigation in 1998, but he said he had no idea the chairman was on a police wanted list or involved in the bid-rigging case.