After half a day of confusion, a bill to broaden the circumstances under which funds from the Deposit Insurance Corp. can aid financially troubled institutions was approved Tuesday evening by the full Lower House.

Supporting the bill were the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and the Social Democratic Party and New Party Sakigake, the LDP's two smaller non-Cabinet allies. Some independent lawmakers also voted for the bill.

Three major noncommunist opposition parties - Shinshinto, the Democratic Party of Japan and Taiyo Party - boycotted the plenary session vote in protest of the LDP's forcible management of Diet proceedings. The Japanese Communist Party attended and voted against the bill.

The bill, aimed at revising the Deposit Insurance Law, would enable the DIC to disburse funds as a restructuring step to companies resulting from the merger of two or more ailing financial institutions. The DIC would have such power until March in 2001.

As a permanent measure, the DIC would also be empowered to aid financial institutions created by the merger of healthy and troubled banks.

The plenary session vote was held after the ruling camp railroaded the bill through the Lower House Finance Committee despite protests from the opposition. In an effort to normalize Diet procedure, leaders from both camps held intermittent talks Tuesday afternoon to negotiate a solution.

Although the controversial bill was immediately sent to the Upper House, it is uncertain whether it will be approved and enacted into law before the current extraordinary Diet session ends Friday.

Kansei Nakano, Shinshinto's Diet affairs chief, said the party would put up maximum resistance to stop the bill from being approved by the Upper House. Shinshinto, the DPJ and the Taiyo Party had been demanding that the hurried vote at the committee level be rescinded.

They have also labeled the bill defective, adding that even the ruling camp is considering revising the law again during the next regular Diet session in January to further broaden the use of DIC funds to cope with the widening crisis in the financial industry.

The DIC is currently allowed to dispense its funds to a healthy financial institution that has agreed to rescue a problematic financial firm through such means as acquisition, takeover of operations, or equity investment.