Tsutomu Takebe, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, suggested Thursday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should dissolve the House of Representatives if his postal reform initiative hits a snag in the Diet in January.

The government plans to submit the postal reform bills to the Diet early next year.

The remarks by the Liberal Democratic Party's No. 2 man, made during a lecture in Tokyo, are apparently an attempt to maintain party solidarity on the issue. Many LDP members are opposed to the Cabinet's plan to privatize the massive postal organization, which has effectively served as a solid vote-getting machine for the LDP.

The government's plan advocates splitting Japan Post into four units in 2007 that would be in charge of postal insurance, postal savings, postal delivery and post office network management

But some LDP members have mapped out a different plan, in which the entity would be split into three units while retaining the postal delivery and network management parts as a single unit that would also be allowed to undertake settlement services, making it more profitable.

"I'm not afraid of a dissolution (of the Lower House), and (the prime minister) should exercise the right to dissolve (the house for a snap election) in some cases," Takebe said.

His remark came a day after Takenori Kanzaki, the leader of coalition partner New Komeito, said that dissolution of the Diet would be less likely while Koizumi is in power through September 2006. The remark was apparently intended to question whether the LDP would be brave enough to resist postal privatization and bring down the popular prime minister.