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OSAKA, May 22 Kyodo

Chiefs of specially designated post offices gathered in Osaka from all over Japan on Sunday to rally against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal privatization plan.

About 9,000 chiefs of such post offices were attending a general meeting of their association, a major support base of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Some lawmakers within Koizumi's LDP opposing his postal reform plan and members of the labor union at Japan Post also took part in the rally. But the LDP's leadership did not participate.

The special post-office heads are against postal privatization bills recently presented to the Diet as they involve reforms of a century-old system running their post offices.

Such post offices have been accused of helping muster votes for LDP candidates due to their close ties with local communities.

Tamisuke Watanuki, an LDP lawmaker heading a party consultation group on postal service business, told the meeting that ''Deciding the path of the post offices, which have played major roles (in local communities), simply from a viewpoint of business efficiency and profitability is absolutely unacceptable.''

Another LDP lawmaker Shunichi Yamaguchi, also a member of the consultation group, said, ''We must do our utmost to scrap the bills.''

Masayasu Takahashi, who leads the special post offices' association, said the postal bills ''do not address at all the question of why postal privatization is necessary now.''

''We will fight until the end,'' said he.

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Taro Aso, whose ministry is overseeing Japan Post, sought the post offices chiefs' understanding of the postal bills.

Postal business must be conducted in a manner that will ensure leeway in business management, Aso said, adding the postal bills should get a pass mark from that point of view.

There are about 19,000 specially designated post offices nationwide. Such post offices were mostly built by dominant local figures on condition they serve as chiefs of such offices. Although such post masters are public servants, their jobs are hereditary.

The system dates back to the 1870s, when the government tried to build the nation's postal network without using tax money.

Postal privatization has been the Koizumi Cabinet's top policy priority since its launch in 2001, but the policy has met with strong opposition from some LDP lawmakers as well as the opposition camp.

The postal bills are designed to split Japan Post in April 2007 into four units that will take over the public corporation's mail delivery, savings, and life insurance services in 10 years.