A group of ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers Thursday called for a meeting of party lawmakers within this week to counter Prime Minister Taro Aso's move to dissolve the lower house next week for a general election.

According to Kyodo News, the group, including former LDP Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa, submitted signatures from more than one-third of all Diet party members to the current Secretary General Hiroyuki Hosoda.

Signatures also include those of the incumbent Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano and Farm Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

To open the panel, officially known as the Joint Plenary Meeting of Party Members of Both Houses of the Diet, at least 128 signatures, or a third of the 384 LDP lawmakers, must be collected. And under party rules, the LDP must convene the meeting within seven days after the signatures are submitted.

On Wednesday, LDP lawmakers started a petition drive that could set the stage for Prime Minister Taro Aso's ouster before the lower house election next month.

Three former LDP secretaries-general -- Nakagawa, Tsutomu Takebe and Koichi Kato -- have all separately raised questions about the merit of Aso leading the LDP into the Aug. 30 election.

Finance Minister Yosano was believed to have tacitly urged Aso on Wednesday to resign in response to the LDP's historical defeat in Sunday's Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly poll.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2009)