Kyodo news summary -8-

Japan Policy & Politics, May 2, 2005

TOKYO, April 29 Kyodo

---------- Iraqi parliamentarians approve Cabinet of new gov't

BAGHDAD - Iraq's interim National Assembly on Thursday approved a list of Cabinet members for a transitional government, three months after national elections.

The new 37-member Cabinet headed by Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari was approved by 180 votes to five, with 90 parliamentarians absent from the chamber.

---------- Iran threatens to resume uranium enrichment without talks progress

BRUSSELS - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi threatened Thursday to restart enriching uranium if no results are reached after international consultations in London, the Dutch press agency ANP reported.

''If in London there is no real result, Iran will restart enriching uranium. Iran does not want to be kept in suspense forever,'' Kharrazi said after a meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot in The Hague.

---------- LDP calls for extending Diet session to pass postal bills

TOKYO - Senior members of the governing Liberal Democratic Party decided Thursday to seek an extension of the ongoing regular Diet session beyond its scheduled end June 19 to enable the passage of a postal privatization package, LDP lawmakers said.

LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe and party Diet Affairs Committee Chairman Hidenao Nakagawa met within the Diet building and agreed that an extension is inevitable, they said. A senior LDP lawmaker said at least a month's extension would be necessary.

---------- Annan hopes for broad agreement on U.N. reforms in 2005

NEW DELHI - U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday that members of the United Nations are being encouraged to come to a broad agreement this year on reforms of the world body including expansion of the Security Council even as he ruled out veto powers for its new members.

Annan said expecting the removal of veto powers of the Security Council's five permanent members -- the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia -- would be utopian, while giving such powers to the new entrants was not the purpose of the high-powered committee set up to look into the issue.

---------- Japan, U.S. may refer 6-way talks issue to Security Council

TOKYO - The Japanese government on Thursday began coordinating policy with the United States toward referring a stalemate in six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear issue to an arbitration process of the U.N. Security Council if Pyongyang fails to agree to resume the talks by the end of June, government sources said.

But the two countries have no intention of immediately seeking Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang over the issue, according to the sources. They instead wish to pressure it to resume the talks, the sources said.

---------- Labor ministry mulls allowing white-collar workers to work longer

TOKYO - The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Thursday held an experts meeting to study a labor system to allow white-collar workers to work longer hours.

The study group is expected to discuss in the future a system to exempt certain types of white-collar workers from regulations stipulated under the Labor Standards Law -- which regulates maximum overtime work per week to up to 40 hours -- and expanding the discretionary labor system.