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By  Thomas Wilson  |  TOKYO

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TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Deliberations over a bill to legalize casino gambling looked likely to drag on Tuesday, with the ruling coalition' s hopes of getting the bill enacted soon coming up against opposition parties' protests.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe' s Liberal Democratic Party hopes to get the bill through the committee vote Tuesday to buy enough time to enact it in an upper house plenary vote before a two-week extension to the Diet session comes to an end Wednesday.

The Democratic Party and smaller opposition parties have signaled they will do all they can to block the bill' s progress in the House of Councillors' Cabinet committee. The committee' s chairman, who has significant powers over the timing of votes on bills, is Democratic Party lawmaker Shoji Namba.

The Democratic Party told the LDP in a cross-party meeting Tuesday afternoon that it will not take part in a vote on the casino bill, asking for the bill to be resubmitted to the lower house with various amendments.

If the opposition parties succeed in preventing a committee vote on Tuesday, LDP lawmakers could resort to cutting short the committee deliberations to take the bill straight to a plenary session vote.

The fracas could prompt a further extension of one or two days to the Diet session, which was earlier extended to end in time for Abe' s scheduled meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Japan on Thursday and Friday.

Democratic Party Diet Affairs Committee chairman Kazunori Yamanoi told reporters Tuesday the party will " take every possible measure" to prevent the enactment of the casino bill, referring to the possibility of submitting a no-confidence motion against the Abe Cabinet.

LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai indicated at a press conference Tuesday the party remains determined to get the bill through the upper house before the end of the session Wednesday.

During the current extraordinary Diet session, which convened Sept. 26, opposition parties have fiercely protested the speed with which bills have cleared deliberations, arguing Abe' s LDP and coalition partner Komeito have railroaded the bills without allowing proper discussion.

The casino bill, which passed in the House of Representatives, or lower house, on Dec. 6 after just several hours of deliberations, allows " integrated resorts" that combine casinos with hotels and entertainment facilities.

The group of mostly LDP lawmakers sponsoring the bill claims the resorts will spur both domestic and foreign tourism, while opponents in opposition parties and even in Komeito have raised concerns casinos could worsen problem gambling.

A bill to reform Japan' s pension system looked likely to clear a separate upper house committee Tuesday after members of the ruling and opposition parties agreed to hold a committee vote once deliberations conclude.

The bill, which passed in the lower house on Nov. 29, changes the way pension payments are calculated against movements in wages and prices.

Appearing Tuesday morning at the upper chamber' s health, labor and welfare committee, which is chaired by an LDP lawmaker, Abe said the bill " heightens the sustainability of the system."

The Democratic Party and other opposition parties have also protested the pension bill, but can do little to obstruct it at this stage because the committee is chaired by an LDP lawmaker.