If Mr Kan cannot manage this, it would be better to call a snap general election.

ECONOMIST: Governing Japan

Last summer, he astonished even himself by winning the snap general election called by President Jacques Chirac.

ECONOMIST: Lionel Jospin, escape artist

There was speculation that he might call a snap general election, though one does not have to be held until September 2009.

ECONOMIST: Politics this week | The

It will condition Italy's politics for months to come, not least in the increasingly likely event of there being a snap general election.

ECONOMIST: Silvio Berlusconi's troubles

For months, Malaysia's capital has been abuzz with rumours that the prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, will call a snap general election in August or September.

ECONOMIST: The prime minister keeps the opposition waiting

But it is not just the DPJ's Mr Ozawa who will be calling for a snap general election, which the LDP is not bound to call until 2009.

ECONOMIST: Japan

On October 25th Mr Papandreou said that if voters turned away from Pasok he might call a snap general election in December, barely a year after winning the previous one.

ECONOMIST: A tense mood in Greece ahead of high-stakes local elections

It was Mr Chirac, for instance, who called the snap general election two years ago that returned the Socialists to power, ushering in the current cohabitation between a president of the right and a government of the left.

ECONOMIST: Jacques Chirac, out of steam