TOKYO, Oct. 18 (Kyodo) - Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Thursday the nation's economy may contract in fiscal 2001, reversing his international pledge to avoid an economic contraction, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) officials said. "I cannot guarantee that the economy will not contract," Shiokawa was quoted as telling a meeting of the LDP's Policy Deliberation Commission. The commission, meanwhile, rejected Shiokawa's proposal to compile a 2.7 trillion yen supplementary budget for the current fiscal year on the grounds that it is too small to stimulate the faltering economy, the officials said. Shiokawa told the LDP commission that he wants to compile a 2.7 trillion yen supplementary budget while keeping the government's policy of limiting the amount of annual new bond issuance to 30 trillion yen in view of "a critical level" of outstanding government debts, the officials said. He also told the commission that he hopes to achieve "the primary balance," or a debt-free state budget, they said. The primary balance refers to a situation in which spending equals revenues, excluding debt-servicing costs and government bond revenues. Many members of the commission were opposed to Shiokawa's stance and rejected his proposal on the extra budget, according to the officials. LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Taro Aso reportedly asked, "Will the government let the economy fall into a contraction by sticking to the 30-trillion-yen mark?" Other participants reportedly said it is wrong to place priority on fiscal reform at a time when many corporations are failing and that large-scale budgets will be necessary for another two years until the bad loan disposal issue is resolved. Shiokawa later told reporters that the government may have to consider compiling a secondary supplementary budget for the current fiscal year if the economy further deteriorates in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. "We may have to consider measures if the economic situation becomes severe," Shiokawa told reporters in the Diet building. He said, however, the government is not currently considering the secondary extra budget due to the nation's tight financial situation. Shiokawa also said he wants to see the yen to become slightly weaker. Japan has been conducting a series of dollar-buying, yen-selling currency interventions since last month to stem the rise of the yen because a strong yen would damage the already fragile economy by reducing exports.