(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-13 11:24

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told executives of his ruling coalition that he intends to resign, a ruling party lawmaker said on Wednesday.

Here is a timeline charting highs and lows for Abe since he took office last September:

* September 26, 2006: Abe is chosen as prime minister with approval ratings of around 60 percent.

* October 8-9, 2006: A five-year impasse in bilateral ties ended when Abe made China his first foreign destination after taking office, visiting just weeks after becoming prime minister.

* December 21: Abe's point man on tax, Tax Commission Chairman Masaaki Homma, resigns after media reports that he is living with a mistress in an upscale government-subsidised apartment.

* December 27: The minister for administrative reform, Genichiro Sata, quits after a group of his political supporters filed "inappropriate" financial statements.

* January 27, 2007: Health Minister Hakuo Yangisawa calls women "birth-giving machines" in a speech, prompting public outrage and calls for his resignation from both opposition and ruling party lawmakers. Abe and Yangisawa apologise, but Abe keeps the minister in the job.

* March 5: Abe remarks that there is no proof Japan's army or government kidnapped women to act as sex slaves for soldiers during World War Two, sparking outrage in the United States and across Asia.

* April 13: A visit to Japan by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao further thaws ties between the two neighbours and boosts Abe's ratings. Wen's trip is the first by a Chinese premier since 2000.

* April 26-27: Abe travels to the United States for a meeting with US President George W. Bush at Camp David, his first US trip as prime minister.

* May 28: Scandal-tainted Farm Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, under fire for a series of funding scandals, hangs himself.

* June 15: Abe's support rate falls below 30 percent -- seen by many analysts as a crisis level -- for the first time since taking office.

* July 3: Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma resigns two days after provoking an outcry by saying the 1945 US atomic bombing of two Japanese cities "couldn't be helped".

* July 7: Media report that Abe's new farm minister, Norihiko Akagi, fudged financial statements for the office of a political support group that was no longer in use. Akagi denies wrongdoing and Abe defends him, but he resigns a month later on August 1.

* July 29: Abe's coalition loses its upper house majority in its first big electoral test, punished by voters angered by the scandals, gaffes and bungling of pension records.

* August 27: Abe reshuffles his cabinet and LDP leadership, opting for several experienced "old hands", in a bid to regain public confidence in his administration.

* September 3: Farm Minister Takehiko Endo resigns over illegal dealings at a farmer's group he headed. Another new appointee, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Yukiko Sakamoto quits after a campaign office in her constituency misreported financial outlays.

* September 12: Abe tells executives in his ruling coalition that he intends to resign, Japanese media report.