Japan's main opposition party breaks up

Japan's largest opposition party, New Frontier, has formally decided to dissolve.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the party's deputies from both houses of parliament.

Yesterday, New Frontier's leader, Ichiro Ozawa, said he and a group of supporters would set up a new party next month.

The New Frontier Party was founded three years ago to rival the governing Liberal Democrats.

It has one hundred and twenty six seats in the lower house of parliament, half the total of the Liberal Democrats.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service