Japan's main opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa has agreed to stay on following a row within his party over whether to accept a power-sharing offer from the Prime Minister.
Mr Ozawa, who led the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to a major upper house election victory in July, unexpectedly announced yesterday he intended to resign after his party rejected the offer to form a grand coalition.
But senior party officials managed to persuade him not to step down.
"Mr Ozawa said he wants to work again as party leader after seeing the requests from members who want him to stay on," DPJ secretary-general Yukio Hatoyama said.
Mr Ozawa agreed to retract his decision to resign after meeting with top party executives, including Mr Hatoyama.
The DPJ's vice-president, Katsuya Okada, said earlier in the day that Mr Ozawa had a "responsibility to rebuild the party".
"He should not throw away the position and run off now," Mr Okada said.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda proposed a coalition in a one-on-one meeting with Mr Ozawa on Friday in a bid to break the legislative stalemate over Japan's refuelling support mission for US-led operations in Afghanistan.
The mission, Japan's main role in the US-led "war on terror," was halted last week after legislation authorising it expired.
Mr Ozawa had described the decision by DPJ executives to reject the offer as a "vote of no confidence" in his leadership. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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