TOKYO - Japan plans fresh stimulus spending worth at least US$100 billion (S$150 billion) to rescue Asia's biggest economy from its worst crisis since World War II, the finance minister said on Monday.

Prime Minister Taro Aso has called for an extra budget of at least two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for the 2009 financial year starting this month, Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano told reporters.

That would make the package worth 10 trillion yen or more.

Mr Aso first announced last month plans for a new boost to the economy, but he did not say at the time how much it would be worth.

The latest package comes on top of stimulus measures unveiled since October that were worth a combined 75 trillion yen, of which actual fiscal spending was about 12 trillion yen.

Japan's economy logged its worst performance in almost 35 years in the last quarter of 2008, contracting at an annualised pace of 12.1 per cent. The government has described the economic crisis as the worst since World War II.

The new package is expected to include measures to help laid-off workers, aid cash-strapped companies secure access to credit, improve healthcare and to encourage greater use of solar energy technologies.

The new boost follows a call by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for nations to lift stimulus spending to at least two percent of GDP, or annual economic output.

Japan's economy has been badly hurt by the global economic downturn, which has caused its exports to halve over the past year as demand for its cars and high-tech goods dries up.

Major manufacturers have cut back on production and slashed tens of thousands of jobs since the crisis began. Unemployment in Japan hit a three-year high of 4.4 per cent in February.

Mr Yosano did not say whether the government would issue more bonds to finance the additional spending. Japan already has huge public debts - a legacy of Tokyo's efforts to spend its way out of the 1990s recessions. -- AFP