Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has begun arranging for a trip to New York next week to attend a special UN summit in the event that his ruling coalition wins Sunday's general election, Kyodo News reported Friday.

Koizumi plans to hold a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and mulls delivering a speech that calls for reforming the United Nations early, including the expansion of the Security Council during the three-day summit.

Koizumi is also expected to express Japan's readiness to play an important role in the UN Millennium Development Goal to tackle world poverty as well as international peace efforts including the fight against terrorism, according to Kyodo.

The special UN summit that starts next Wednesday will be held to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

Media polls have indicated that Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the New Komeito party, are likely to win a comfortable majority in the election.

Koizumi intends to retain all the current Cabinet members if the ruling coalition wins the election and he is reelected as prime minister, and plans to reshuffle the Cabinet only after his postal privatization bills are passed by the parliament in the special session.

In case of a contrary result, Koizumi has said he will step down if the governing coalition fails to win a majority in the lower house.

Source: Xinhua