TOKYO - JAPAN'S conservative Prime Minister Taro Aso is likely to call elections in August, several newspapers reported on Tuesday, as parliament extended its current session until late July.

In the polls, which must be held by October, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) hopes to beat Mr Aso's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled the country for almost all of the past half-century.

Pressure has grown on Mr Aso, who trails the opposition in approval ratings, to call elections quickly and speculation has been intense on when he will dissolve the legislature to pave the way for the vote.

Parliament on Tuesday approved the extension of its current session by 55 days to July 28, a parliament spokesman said.

Mr Aso's LDP has said the extension aims to allow his government to push through key bills to stimulate the recession-hit economy and to expand the scope of Japan's anti-piracy mission off Somalia.

The extension fuelled speculation that Mr Aso wants to go to the polls soon after bagging these legislative successes and after having basked in the limelight of a G8 summit to be held in Italy from July 8 to 10.

Newspapers tipped the Sundays of August 2 or 30 as likely polling days. Some pundits are betting on August 9, but others see this as unlikely because it is the anniversary of the World War II atomic bombing on Nagasaki.

Many Japanese are on summer holidays on August 16 and 23. September 6 is another option for the vote, according to some major national dailies.

Mr Aso, who took power last September, has seen support slip over a series of verbal gaffes and a plummeting economy.

Latest opinion surveys showed the DPJ has rebounded after a leadership change in the wake of a political donation scandal which hit its former leader. New DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama has signalled he is ready for an election, saying 'why do they have to postpone the election to August?' -- AFP