The Liberal Democratic Party is facing its biggest crisis since it was founded in 1955, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday.

"I think (the party's members) acutely feel the people's distrust in politics, the people's distrust in the LDP, every day," Fukuda said in Tokyo at the party's annual convention. "Beginning with the pension issue, the public is indignant over politics and the administration."

The LDP-led ruling bloc has been hit by scandals and fiascoes that led to its loss of the Upper House in July. Faced with a split Diet, Fukuda is widely expected to dissolve the Lower House and call an election this year.