TOKYO, Nov 22: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi wants to accelerate and strengthen a major economic and banking reform plan by next month, Economic and Financial Affairs Minister Heizo Takenaka said Friday.

We have to create the programme in step with the Finance Ministry’s compilation of the supplementary budget. An announcement will be made in mid-December, Takenaka told a news conference.

The move will upgrade a highly-criticised initiative unveiled last month to halve the ratio of bad loans at banks — cited as a root cause of the nation’s economic malaise — by March 2005.

It also included measures to fight deflation by supporting struggling companies and cutting taxes.—AFP