Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa voiced hope Tuesday that the fiscal 2004 budget won't be bigger than that of the current fiscal year.

"We want to deal with inevitable increases (in social security costs) in such a way that the size (of the fiscal 2004 budget) does not surpass that of the fiscal 2003 budget," which totaled 81.79 trillion yen, Shiokawa told a gathering in Tokyo.

This constitutes Shiokawa's first reference to his stance on the fiscal 2004 budget, work on which is expected to start in June.