A government advisory panel is expected to propose the creation of a new memorial facility for Japan's war dead by year's end.

The panel is attempting to ease the tension with neighboring countries that is sparked each time a prime minister visits Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the war dead along with Class-A World War II criminals.

But a major hurdle must be cleared before construction begins. A number of Liberal Democratic Party heavyweights are either in opposition to or cautious about the project. Among those concerned are former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and former LDP Secretary General Makoto Koga, president of the Japan Association for the Bereaved Families of the War Dead, political sources said.

Even Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the facility would not be an alternative to Yasukuni Shrine, indicating he would continue his visits. Yasukuni Shrine honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead as well as 14 wartime leaders convicted after the war as Class-A war criminals by an international court led by the Allied nations.

Koizumi visited Yasukuni on Aug. 13 last year. The visit drew sharp reactions from Asian countries, such as China and South Korea, which suffered heavily at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army. Koizumi also triggered a diplomatic row with the two countries in April when he again visited the shrine.

The government panel to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda was created last December to study the establishment of a new memorial facility.

The panel was initially scheduled to compile an interim report by this summer with an eye on a possible shrine visit by Koizumi on Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender to Allied forces. Because Koizumi visited the shrine in April, however, the panel decided there was no need to meet such a deadline, government sources said.

The panel now aims to compile the report by the end of the year. It is led by Takashi Imai, chairman of Nippon Steel Corp. and honorary chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), Japan's largest business lobby.

The panel held its sixth meeting on May 23 and has been continuing with unofficial talks since.

Panel sources said members hold divided opinions over who the new memorial facility should honor.

Nearly all panel members agree that the facility should honor all those who died in wars since the 1868 Meiji Restoration. These include civilians, foreign nationals and those who died during U.N. peacekeeping operations.

At issue, however, is whether Class-A war criminals should be included.

"This is the very difficult final decision," said a panel member.

The sources quoted one panel member, who supports including the war criminals, as saying, "We should not be whipping the dead."

Others were quoted as expressing opposition to the idea, saying the new facility would draw the same protests as Yasukuni does should war criminals also be honored.

Political sources have said that Koizumi is apparently not keen on the idea of a new memorial facility. So even if the panel makes a recommendation to create one, the proposal will likely be shelved, and any solution to the Yasukuni problem will remain distant.