Media said, however, that Mr Aso faced substantial opposition to his plans inside the LDP, where moves to dump him have intensified as fears grow that the party will suffer a bashing at in an election many expect in August.
'They are in panic mode,' said Gerry Curtis, a political science professor at New York's Columbia University, noting that recent internal LDP surveys suggest the party might only win 165 seats in parliament's 480-member lower house.
The party now holds 303 seats and its junior partner has 31, giving them a two-thirds majority that allows them to enact laws rejected by the opposition-controlled upper chamber.
Senior LDP executive Takashi Sasagawa rejected calls to pick a new party leader soon. 'There is no time and this would merely cause mistrust,' he told reporters.
Japan has had three premiers since Junichiro Koizumi led the LDP to a huge election victory in 2005, with Mr Aso's two predecessors both quitting after a year in the face of the deadlocked parliament and sinking support.
The ruling party infighting comes as Japan struggles to emerge from its worst recession in 60 years. The jobless rate hit a 5-1/2-year high in May and job availability sank to record low.
A ruling bloc loss in a closely watched election for the governorship of Shizuoka, in central Japan, on Sunday would likely boost calls for Aso to quit, but many say the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election holds the real key to his fate.
If the LDP manages to hold its losses to a minimum in Tokyo, Aso may be able to hang on and call an election for August. If the LDP does poorly, moves to oust him will intensify. But there is no guarantee that doing so would rescue the LDP. -- REUTERS