But Abe, slated to visit Europe for about a week from Wednesday, will be absent from the meeting.

The LDP and the DP also agreed to summon former vice education minister Kihei Maekawa to give unsworn testimony in the deliberations at a joint meeting of the House of Representatives Committee on Cabinet and the Lower House Committee on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Maekawa has claimed that there was pressure from the prime minister's office behind the plan to allow Kake Educational Institution, headed by a personal friend of Abe, to open a university department of veterinary medicine in a national strategic special zone in the city of Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan.

In a statement released through his attorney on Tuesday, Maekawa expressed his intention to accept the call for him to attend an off-session meeting as an unsworn witness. "I'm ready to fully answer questions," he said.

The LDP had been negative about accepting the opposition camp's request for an off-session parliamentary meeting over the Kake scandal, but the party changed the attitude following its stunning defeat in Sunday's Tokyo metropolitan assembly election amid growing public criticism of the government's insufficient

response to the scandal.

On Tuesday, LDP Diet affairs chief Wataru Takeshita proposed that an off-session Lower House committee meeting be held on Monday or the following day. His DP counterpart, Kazunori Yamanoi, rejected the proposal, insisting that it will be "pointless if the prime minister doesn't attend."

But Yamanoi later accepted the proposal since Takeshita showed readiness to consider holding another session with Abe's participation after watching the Monday meeting.

The DP side plans to call for a Lower House Budget Committee meeting to be held on or after July 12 when Abe returns home.

The House of Councillors, the upper chamber, is also expected to hold a joint meeting of its cabinet and education committees on Monday.

Meanwhile, Yamanoi also demanded the early convening of an extraordinary Diet session and the dismissal of Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, who drew fire for her controversial remark related to the Self-Defense Forces during the LDP's campaign for the Tokyo assembly election.

Takeshita replied that he would convey the demands to the government. (Jiji Press)