Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will finalize a plan on reforming special public entities in early December if the government fails to reach a consensus on the issue, according to a final draft of the plan released Saturday.

According to the timetable on streamlining public corporations, known as special purpose entities, Koizumi will make the decision if Nobuteru Ishihara, state minister in charge of administrative reform, fails to reach an agreement with Cabinet ministers on how to reform the government-affiliated bodies in each minister's jurisdiction.

However, several members of Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party and its task force on administrative reform are opposed to the plan to review SPEs.

The government is scheduled to disclose information about its sour claims on loans and investments to SPEs the end of this month, the draft says.

The government will then present its plan to each ministry and agency in mid-November and specify which corporations are to be scrapped, privatized or altered into independent administrative agencies, the draft says.

The draft also calls on the government to reach a conclusion by late November on seven SPEs that have already been targeted by Koizumi for dissolution or privatization.

The seven entities include Japan Highway Public Corp., the Government Housing Loan Corp. and Japan National Oil Corp.

Ishihara will meet with each Cabinet member and ask him or her to review the entities' business operations by the end of October.

Ishihara and three other Cabinet members will then hold a meeting in November or December to draw up a plan to execute the reforms.

The government eyes drawing up its reform plan by the end of the year as part of efforts to create a smaller government by slashing wasteful spending on the entities and allowing the private sector to handle some of the businesses. The government has set aside roughly 5.3 trillion yen for these public corporations in the fiscal 2001 budget. The Koizumi administration wants to cut a total of 1 trillion yen in those subsidies from the fiscal 2002 budget.