Shigeru Ishiba, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's No. 2 man, is likely to take the new post of minister for defense legislation in a Cabinet reshuffle slated for early September, thereby taking charge of pushing through Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's key security policies, party sources said Sunday.

"If I receive a formal request, I will accept the offer whatever post it will be," LDP Secretary General Ishiba told Abe through the prime minister's aides, according to the sources.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Takeo Kawamura, former chief Cabinet secretary and currently chairman of the LDP's Election Strategy Committee, are among possible candidates to succeed Ishiba as LDP secretary general.