The ruling Liberal Democratic Party will call for an additional economic stimulus package of more than 10 trillion yen after the Diet approves the fiscal 1998 state budget in April, top officials of the LDP have indicated.

"The dominant view in the party is that the size of the additional package should top 10 trillion yen. I want to respect this view," Taku Yamasaki, chairman of the LDP's policy research council, said on a TV program March 8.

But financial markets were apparently not impressed. The key Nikkei index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange sank below the 17,000 line March 9 on growing disappointment that Yamasaki did not mention income tax cuts.