But the deputy leader of the party that abandoned the ruling coalition predicted the beleaguered premier would be forced to resign within days.

"I think it will be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," said Seiji Mataichi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) which broke ranks with Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan on Sunday over the base row, according to the Jiji Press news agency.

Mataichi is known to have strong connections to the upper echelons of the DPJ.

Support for Hatoyama's cabinet fell to 17 percent, a massive reversal since his party's landslide victory in August's general elections, according to a poll carried out for the influential daily Asahi Shimbun.

The rating, which comes just over a month ahead of upper house elections, was down four percentage points from two weeks ago, while the disapproval rating rose to 70 percent from 64 percent.

Hatoyama on Monday held a hastily-arranged meeting with Ichiro Ozawa, the powerful secretary general of the DPJ, and another party elder as pressure mounted inside the party for him to resign.

After the meeting, he told reporters at his office there was "as a matter of course" no question of his standing down as prime minister.

"It was a meeting to confirm that three of us will join forces in working hard for the country and the people although the situation is severe," he said.

The pressure on Hatoyama increased when the SDP, a small socialist party, walked out of the ruling coalition after the prime minister fired its leader Mizuho Fukushima from his cabinet when she publicly refused to back his decision reneging on an election promise to move a controversial US Marine base off Okinawa.

After months of tension, Tokyo and Washington said in a joint statement last week the base would be moved, as first agreed in 2006, only from a crowded urban area to a coastal region of the tropical island.

The SDP decided Monday to support an opposition plan to submit a no-confidence motion against Hatoyama, although he is expected to survive the vote as his ruling coalition still has a majority in parliament.

But there were growing demands for Hatoyama's resignation among the Democrats, according to Yoshimitsu Takashima, who heads the party's deputies in the upper house.

"It is true that such voices are overwhelming among our deputies fighting for seats in the upper house," he told reporters.

The Asahi poll, conducted over the weekend, showed that 57 percent of voters disapproved of the government's decision to keep the US base on Okinawa while 27 percent supported it.

Two other polls conducted on Saturday and Sunday, by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper and Kyodo News, also showed approval ratings for the cabinet dipping to new lows of 19 percent. Disapproval ratings rose to 75 percent and 73 percent respectively.

One anonymous upper house member told the Asahi newspaper: "The prime minister is not trusted by voters any more. I'll start taking actions."

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