The Finance Ministry's draft budget for fiscal 2006 does not include outlays for the proposed building of a new national war memorial.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he will make a final decision by Saturday on whether to finance a feasibility study. He said he will consider the circumstances surrounding the issue, including minister-level budget negotiations, before reaching a decision.

"We at present have not made a decision," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe told reporters. "We would like to monitor . . . public opinion."

The government is slated Saturday to adopt its draft fiscal 2006 budget for submission to the Diet in January after the Finance Ministry draft is fine-tuned through ministerial negotiations.

Government and ruling coalition sources have said, however, that the government has decided against a budget appropriation for the war memorial.

An advisory panel proposed in December 2002, following harsh outcries from China and South Korea against Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine, that the government set up a secular war memorial so anyone can pay tribute to the war dead.

But the Koizumi government has since shelved the proposal on grounds that the public is evenly divided on the matter.