Democratic Party of Japan leader Seiji Maehara apologized Saturday to senior officials from regional DPJ chapters for the leadership's handling of the fiasco over a fabricated e-mail message.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2006/nn20060305a4a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='288'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Democratic Party of Japan leader Seiji Maehara –

talks to DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama at a meeting of senior officials from the party's local chapters in Tokyo on Saturday.

But the regional representatives criticized the way the executives dealt with the matter, and called on Maehara to step down as leader and DPJ lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata, who made the allegations based on the fake e-mail, to give up his Diet seat.