The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will abolish its 10-year electric power development program as early as November as it aims to further liberalize the market, it was learned Saturday.

But the ministry will also create a new program to promote the development of nuclear and other large-scale power plants, as the involvement of the national government is considered necessary to fulfill the long-term aim of securing the nation's energy supplies, ministry officials said.

METI plans to submit to the Diet a bill to abolish the 1952 power development promotion law, which requires that the government update the program each year, during the current session, they said.

It also plans to table a bill in the Diet early next month that will further liberalize the electricity retail market. The ministry has decided to free more of the partially open market in stages through fiscal 2005.

The moves are a major turnaround for Japan's energy policy, which presently involves full government control over power supplies by predicting demand over a 10-year period and approving power utilities' plans to build new plants in line with the predictions.

By removing the restrictions on relatively small thermal power development, new market entrants are likely to be able to compete more effectively with major utilities by building their own plants.

Under the latest fiscal 2002 program, the government has called for the introduction of new power plants with a total capacity of 45.14 million kilowatts over the 10 years to fiscal 2011.

In the envisaged program, METI will designate the site for each large plant to be built, the officials said.

METI believes its continued involvement will help utilities build new plants that are to operate over the long term but require huge initial costs.

The industry has welcomed the ministry's involvement. "It makes it easy to explain the situation to residents of areas where new plants are to be sited once plans are incorporated into the power development program," one industry official said.

In particular, it will facilitate construction of nuclear plants, which in recent years have been the object of growing opposition from local residents because of increasing safety concerns.

The conventional program covers every power plant, including small thermal plants. It is comprised of three pillars -- long-term power development goals, descriptions of the capacities of new plants and of the investment required for new development, and newly approved construction sites.

Set up to deal with power shortages in postwar Japan, the system has played a key role in allowing power utilities to build plants in an organized manner.

METI has updated the program based on a report by the electric power development division of the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy, which advises the METI minister.