TOKYO Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Wednesday dismissed media reports that he had decided to quit and would make the announcement next week.

"I have absolutely no such intention," Mori told a parliamentary panel when asked about a media report on Wednesday saying he would announce his intention to resign before or at a convention of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on March 13.

"I have to show leadership and complete this session of Parliament," Mori said. The current session ends on June 29.

Quoting sources close to Mori, the *** Asahi Shimbun *** newspaper reported that Mori had told executives of the LDP, which dominates a three-party ruling coalition, of his intention to resign.

Mori was likely to announce his plans before or at a March 13 LDP convention, although his actual resignation would come in early April after budget-related bills are enacted, the paper said.

Kyodo news agency, quoting an unidentified senior member of Mori's own LDP faction, said the prime minister had decided he had to resign after the budget is enacted for the fiscal year from April 1. That would be in late March or early April.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference that nothing had been decided about Mori's plans, and dubbed the *** Asahi*** report "grotesque".

"It just stitched together various bits and pieces and it became something grotesque," he told a news conference.

But he added that party leaders would be discussing how to handle the party convention, domestic media said.

Hiromu Nonaka, a LDP powerbroker and one of a "gang of four" who tapped Mori for the job last April, said that he did not think Mori would express his resignation before the March 13 convention.

Mori, his popularity in tatters due to a string of gaffes and scandals, has been under intense pressure from within the ruling coalition to resign to improve the coalition's chances in a key election for Parliament's Upper House in July.

Losing the July election would not end the three-way ruling bloc's grip on power immediately but would spark legislative deadlock and could prompt a snap election for the Lower House, not mandated until 2004.

(Reuter)