TOKYO: Leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People failed to reach an accord Friday in their negotiations on the proposed merger of the major Japanese opposition parties.

"We agreed to discuss the process and results of our merger negotiations at our respective parties," CDPJ leader Yukio Edano told reporters after his meeting with DPFP chief Yuichiro Tamaki.

But Edano stopped short of disclosing details of the meeting, which lasted about three hours. Tamaki, standing side by side with Edano, made no remarks.

The meeting, which was joined by CDPJ Secretary-General Tetsuro Fukuyama and his DPFP counterpart, Hirofumi Hirano, came after Edano and Tamaki held informal talks on Tuesday and Thursday.

Edano had called for a merger accord to be reached before the Jan. 20 start of this year's regular session of the Diet, Japan's parliament.

But Tamaki sought careful discussions without setting a deadline, since many DPFP lawmakers in the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of the Diet, are cautious about the proposed merger.

The DPFP is set to hold a joint meeting of its members in both chambers of the Diet on Wednesday, while the CDPJ plans to hold meetings of executives on Tuesday.

Based on a proposal by Edano, the CDPJ and DPFP secretaries-general continued talks on the parties' possible merger, reaching a broad agreement late last month.

Meanwhile, they have left details, such as the name of the merged party, to be decided by the leaders.

Jiji Press