Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Thursday he "humbly" accepts the low approval ratings of his Cabinet in recent media polls and repeated his determination to promote ongoing economic stimulus policies and continue to support the information technology revolution.

"There must be various reasons" for the low approval rates, and last week's resignation of former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa was a "direct cause among others," Mori acknowledged during an interview with the press at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.

The Cabinet's approval rates dipped below 20 percent in several media polls released earlier this week.

"I must take the approval rate (surveys) humbly and at a time such as this, it is important to go back to basics," he said, referring to the need to put the nation's economy on a full recovery track.

Commenting on negotiations to establish diplomatic ties with North Korea, Mori said the time is not yet ripe for ministerial-level talks or a summit between the two nations on the issue, indicating there is still a wide gap to bridge.

As an option in the negotiations, Mori did not rule out the controversial proposal made in 1997 to North Korea that Pyongyang could return Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by its agents by pretending they had been found in a third country.

"We don't have to say (the option) has disappeared. It may be raised in negotiations to come and there are not many options available," he said.

The 1997 proposal was made by a mission of the then ruling coalition led by Mori himself, who was at the time head of the Liberal Democratic Party's Executive Council. He was fiercely criticized last month for mentioning that such a proposal had been discussed by the coalition mission during a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"We must proceed step by step to narrow the wide gap between the sides," he said in regard to the latest round of bilateral talks with North Korea, which ended in Beijing on Tuesday.

"At present, we are not at a stage where we should specifically consider holding talks between foreign ministers" or at the prime minister level, he said, adding that working-level talks must continue for the time being. He declined to comment on an expected Cabinet reshuffle in December, an event that he has indicated will happen before the consolidation of government ministries and agencies in January.

Asked if Koichi Kato, head of a ruling LDP faction who is being touted as a candidate for prime minister, should enter the Cabinet in the next reshuffle, Mori said: "It is not the right time to consider a thing like that," as the current Diet session is deliberating important bills.