Kan could resign before Aug. end of Diet session: Okada+

TOKYO, June 26 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Naoto Kan could step down before the current parliamentary session concludes at the end of August if three conditions, including the enactment of a second supplementary budget for fiscal 2011, are met, Katsuya Okada, secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, said Sunday.
Okada told reporters the premier will ''have a sense of closure'' if he can achieve the three policy objectives, which also include the enactment of a bill on deficit-covering bond issuance and voting on a bill to promote the use of renewable energy.
''The premier could step down after the (scheduled Aug. 31) end of the current Diet session, but it is quite possible that he would do so before that if he could push through these three challenges,'' Okada said during a TV program.
The DPJ's No. 2 made the remarks as Kan and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano made final arrangements during a meeting the same day before formally designating Ryu Matsumoto, currently serving as environment minister, as minister in charge of disaster reconstruction and naming a new environment minister on Monday.
Okada said the draft of the second extra budget will be submitted to parliament on July 15 and enacted as early as late July following 10 days of deliberations.
Okada denied growing speculation that Kan will dissolve the House of Representatives for a general election to put his antinuclear policy to a public test. ''The answer is obvious if we think about what must be done at present,'' he said.
DPJ lawmakers said the party leadership is considering holding a party presidential election in August, which will effectively pick the next prime minister, and submitting a third supplementary budget during an extraordinary parliamentary session to be convened in September.
==Kyodo