The ruling Liberal Democratic Party plans to decide on the outline of the changes next month and announce the final draft in November next year, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing party sources.

The changes would mark a major revision to the pacifist 1947 constitution imposed by the Americans at the end of World War II, in which the nation renounces war and the use of force in settling international disputes.

While the draft still renounces war, it would allow a newly defined self-defense force to use arms in international security missions, the paper said.

Some 550 of Japan's Self-Defense Forces troops in Iraq have been prevented from joining a multinational force providing security and have instead operated independently on a strictly humanitarian and reconstruction mission.

The revision to the structure of the royal family would also take some pressure off Crown Princess Masako, who has suffered from a stress-induced illness since last December.

Masako, 40, has been pressured to produce a male heir to the throne.

When she gave birth to daughter Princess Aiko in December 2001, it sparked a debate about overturning the ban on women entering the line of royal succession.

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