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Aoki as acting Japanese PM

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has suffered a stroke and will be unable to resume his duties for at least several days, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki said on Monday.

Obuchi designated Aoki as acting prime minister when he visited him in the intensive care unit of a Tokyo hospital on Sunday evening, the chief cabinet secretary told a news conference at the prime minister's official residence.

The prime minister's hospitalisation, if prolonged, would jolt the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), complicating its prospects in the run-up to an election for the powerful Lower House of parliament that must be held by October 19.

Ministers quickly stressed that Obuchi's illness would have no impact on economic policy, with a huge budget intended to pump up the long-stagnant economy safely passed by parliament last month.

While a prolonged hospital stay for Obuchi would set off a struggle within the LDP over who should succeed him, it would be unlikely to alter the course already set for economic policy, analysts said.

"The budget has been passed and the prime minister has already set the course. We will faithfully execute that policy," Economic Planning Minister Taichi Sakaiya told reporters.

Obuchi, 62, had suffered a stroke and was unlikely to be able to resume his duties for several days, Aoki said.

Aoki said he formally took over as acting premier on Monday morning, explaining that Obuchi had told him there could be no delay in steps to deal with the eruption of the Mount Usu volcano in northern Japan, which began on Friday.

The cabinet later held an emergency session at which discussion was expected to have also focused on the fate of 15,000 people evacuated after the volcano erupted.

Questioned by reporters, Aoki said he did not know whether the prime minister's condition was life-threatening and declined to comment on whether he had undergone surgery.

Asked why officials waited 22 hours before announcing that Obuchi had been taken to hospital, Aoki said: "He was in hospital having tests so we were waiting for the results."

Aoki becomes Japan's first acting premier since the death of Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira from a heart attack in June 1980.-Reuters