Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Katsuya Okada pledged Monday to take power from the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in two years of his fresh term after retaining his party's presidency uncontested.

With no other applicants filing for candidacy to challenge him by Monday's deadline, Okada, 51, a five-term House of Representatives member who took over the DPJ presidency in May, will be given the new term through September 2006 in an extraordinary party convention slated for Sept. 13.

"I hope to achieve the power transfer during the two-year period, pressing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government to dissolve the House of Representatives for a general election," Okada told a press conference.

"It is my biggest responsibility to make the party capable of taking over power in the next lower house election," he said.

The DPJ, which saw large gains in this year's House of Councillors election on July 11, is a growing threat to Koizumi's governing LDP.

Okada, who was secretary general under former DPJ leader Naoto Kan, became DPJ president in May after Kan resigned over a failureto pay public pension dues amid widespread pension scandals.

Source: Xinhua