Pro-growth veteran tapped for key Japan party post

TOKYO, Sep 25 (Reuters) Japan's prime minister-in-waiting, Shinzo Abe, picked a pro-growth party heavyweight and a hardliner on China to fill key ruling party posts, media said today, in the first clues to the line-up in his administration.

Hidenao Nakagawa was appointed Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secretary general, the party's No 2 post and de facto campaign manager, as it prepares for an upper house election next summer, NHK television and other Japanese media reported.

The LDP declined comment ahead of a party meeting later in day that is expected to endorse the appointments.

Now serving as the LDP's policy chief, Nakagawa has played an important role in formulating outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic policies, and is one architect of Abe's stance of ''No fiscal reform without growth''.

A close Abe ally, 62-year-old Nakagawa has said spending cuts must come before tax increases in achieving fiscal reform and stresses the need to foster economic growth.

Abe, 52, who had never held a cabinet portfolio until becoming chief cabinet secretary last October, selected party veterans for other key positions as well, including Shoichi Nakagawa as its policy chief, Japanese media reported.

Shoichi Nakagawa, unrelated to Hidenao, has held the agriculture and trade minister portfolios and is known for his tough stance against China and sharing Abe's views on putting patriotism back into classrooms.

Nakagawa, 53, has called China a ''scary'' country and in January said it posed a military threat along with North Korea. He also paid a visit to Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine on August 15, the anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War Two.

The appointments would be the first pieces of a personnel puzzle that will be completed tomorrow when Abe forms his cabinet after parliament confirms him prime minister -- Japan's youngest since World War Two.

The hawkish Abe was elected LDP president last week, winning two-thirds of the vote by party lawmakers and rank-and-file members.

Taro Aso, the runner-up in the LDP presidential race and floated as a contender for the secretary general post, is now likely to be reappointed as foreign minister, media said.

Abe and Aso share many policy views, including a call for closer ties with the United States and a bigger say for Japan in global security affairs.

Aso has also said that as foreign minister, he was making efforts to resume a leaders meeting with China, which may persuade Abe to keep the 66-year-old veteran as his top diplomat.

Aso was set to meet Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo later today amid speculation that Abe could hold a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao soon after taking office.

Abe has criticised Beijing's refusal to hold a summit with Japan over Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, but has said he is keen to improve the bilateral ties, and his aides have said preparations were under way for a possible leaders meeting.

Beijing and Seoul see the Tokyo shrine as a symbol of Japan's past militarism as it honours some wartime leaders convicted by an Allied tribunal along with Japan's war dead.

REUTERS SP SSC1144