A special House of Representatives committee approved a hotly contested package of postal privatization bills Monday, setting up a showdown between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and postal privatization opponents within his Liberal Democratic Party.

Monday's vote, which was supported by the governing coalition, was ensured by the replacement Friday of eight of the 23 LDP panel members by LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe. The eight were suspected of planning to vote against the bills.

If at least four of them had defied the party leadership and joined the 19 dissenters on the 45-member committee, the bills would have been voted down.