The impasse is fuelling worries over an economy reeling from a record earthquake and tsunami that tore into Japan's northeastern coast on March 11.

The 92.4-trillion-yen budget, formulated before the disasters, was enacted after the government-controlled lower house of parliament overrode an earlier veto by the opposition-controlled upper house.

Under the constitution, the annual budget must be enacted within 30 days of being sent to the upper house after the lower house's approval, even if the upper house rejects it. The lower house voted for it on March 1.

But Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) needs opposition support to pass key legislation, including approval to issue deficit-covering bonds to fund 42 percent of planned spending.

Designed to boost the pre-quake economy, the budget also threatens to add to Japan's debt pile, which at nearly 200 percent of GDP is the industrialised world's biggest.

"We will continue to work so that the remaining legislation will be enacted," Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told reporters hours before the official enactment of the budget.

Junior members of Kan's ruling party voiced dissent against the budget proposal, while opposition parties pushed him to call an early election as the bickering that has weighed on Kan's tenure continued.

The moves to oppose the budget run counter to rival party calls for additional spending to help rebuild quake and tsunami-devastated areas after a disaster that has killed more than 11,000 people and left 16,493 missing.

Kan is also considering an extra budget worth between two to three trillion yen to help rebuild the northeast region, Kyodo News said.

Japan's economy slipped to world number three behind China last year and has been beset by chronic deflation, a strong yen that hurts exports, weak domestic demand and feeble consumer confidence.

In the longer run, it faces the demographic timebomb of a greying and shrinking population, which will leave fewer workers supporting more retirees, and a declining domestic consumer market.

There were signs the economy was rebounding before the March 11 disasters but economists are still weighing the extent of the severe economic impact of the earthquake and tsunami.

Infrastructure along the northeast coast has been shattered, while rolling power outages have hit production with companies closing plants temporarily.

Japan last week said the cost of rebuilding after the twin disaster could hit 25 trillion yen ($309 billion), more than double the 1995 Kobe earthquake and nearly four times more than Hurricane Katrina in the United States.

The estimate does not account for wider issues such as how radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was crippled by the quake, will affect food and water supply, amid a deepening contamination scare.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News