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Mori to step down
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JAPANESE Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will probably resign after March 25, not in the coming few days, Moscow diplomatic sources said on Saturday.
Interfax news agency cited “reliable diplomatic sources" as saying that the preparations for a planned Russian-Japanese summit in Russia's far east city Irkutsk on March 25 are still underway.
Mori on Saturday promised ruling party leaders he would resign, signaling an end to one of the most unpopular administrations in postwar history.
The Liberal Democratic Party now has a tight schdule to choose Mori's successor with crucial upper house parliamentary elections looming in July.
Japanese papers yesterday cheered Mori's de facto resignation, saying the unpopular premier should have gone earlier to save the nation from economic and political confusion.
Mori is facing sharp criticism and rising step-down calls from the opposition and inside his ruling alliance due to his cabinet's corruption scandals and his misplay in dealing with a recent sinking of a Japanese fishing ship striken by a US submarine, which killed several Japanese school students and crew members.(SD-Xinhua)
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