Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is set to be formally re-elected for a second term at a special parliament session on Wednesday afternoon as opinion polls continue to show his public support waning.

His cabinet resigned earlier in a formality ahead of their expected reinstatement later in the day, a cabinet official said. Japan's constitution stipulates a cabinet should resign at the first session after a general election.

    
The lower house of parliament is to convene a special session at 1:00 pm (0400 GMT) to pick the prime minister following the November 9 general election.

    
Koizumi is expected to win the parliamentary vote given his ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) control of the all-important chamber.

The LDP controls 245 seats in the 480-seat House of Representatives, and governs with its coalition partner New Komei Party, which has 34 seats.

    
The largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) controls 180 seats, including three independents who joined the DPJ-led parliamentary group. Among them is former ally of Koizumi and popular ex-foreign minister Makiko Tanaka.

    
Koizumi, who reshuffled his cabinet to give it a more reformist profile after being re-elected LDP leader in September, has said he would not make any changes to that cabinet following his general election victory.

    
The special parliament session is expected to last for nine days.

The conservative Sankei Shimbun said in an editorial Wednesday that it "hopes lawmakers will have constructive debate during the limited time, especially on the dispatch of the Self-Defence Forces (SDFs)," to Iraq.

    
Opinion polls have shown a large majority of Japanese public is against a government plan of sending troops to Iraq to help rebuild the country, and show a continuing slide in support for the Koizumi cabinet.

    
A weekend telephone survey by the private Nippon Television network found 71 percent are opposed to the SDF dispatch.

    
The mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun reported Tuesday its weekend interviews of 1,859 people found support for the Koizumi government was at 54 percent, down six points from October and 11 points from September.

    
Support for the LDP fell by three points from October to 36 percent while that of the DPJ nearly doubled to 21 percent, a record for the opposition party, the daily said.

    
In July, the ruling coalition rammed a controversial bill through parliament allowing the first dispatch of troops since the Second World War to a country where fighting continues.

Japan's post-war constitution bans the use of force to settle international disputes. The DPJ is against the SDF dispatch.

    
The Sankei newspaper said "it would be unforgivable for the ruling coalition/government to evade the debate (on Iraq) with the United States and other countries in the world watching how Japan will act".

Koizumi has left the public guessing about the timing for the SDF dispatch, only saying he would make a decision "by examining the situation". The deadly attack on Italian carabinieri in Nasiriyah last week prompted the government to back away from announcing an imminent dispatch.

The Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial "the prime minister no longer gives the impression that he is invincible, partly affected by the strong showing by the DPJ in the general election."

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2003)