The ruling bloc and the Democratic Party of Japan have agreed in principle to submit a bill to a regular session of the Diet next year authorizing a referendum on revising the Constitution, party members said.

Senior members of constitutional research panels of the Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition ally, New Komeito, and the DPJ reached the accord at an unofficial meeting Tuesday in Tokyo with Taro Nakayama, an LDP lawmaker and chairman of the House of Representatives special committee on the Constitution, they said.

The parties will begin official negotiations early next year on submitting the bill with a target of enacting it during the 150-day session that convenes in January.

The ruling parties and the main opposition party agreed to work together after a ruling coalition panel reversed itself last week and decided to refrain in principle from efforts to ban media predictions of the outcome of a constitutional referendum.

The DPJ is generally opposed to legal restrictions on media reporting of the issue.

The ruling bloc outlined a draft bill last year that included restrictions on reports predicting the outcome of such a referendum. The measures were heavily criticized by the media and the opposition.

The Constitution has not been revised since it took effect in 1947. Although a referendum is required for any amendment, there is no legislation at present specifying how such a referendum would be held.

Regarding constitutional revisions, the Japanese Communist Party, whose position is that the Constitution should not be changed, clearly opposed the proposed bill. The JCP says the legislation would lead to revising the war-renouncing Article 9.