TOKYO, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Party of Japan's first annual convention since the party seized power in last year's general election turned into a fiery affair on Saturday.

    Key policy issues were largely overshadowed by a cannonade of acerbic questions being asked by Diet members, following the recent arrests of three of DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa's aides, which have sent shockwaves through the ruling coalition.

    Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who has previously lauded Ozawa as "a politician of very strong conviction," has now moved to a position of monitoring the turn of events, but supported Ozawa when he came under fire from local assembly members at the convention on Saturday, having already defended his confidant earlier in the day to the press.

    "The secretary general has told me that he has no intention of resigning, so I told him that I trust him and would like him to continue to stay on," Hatoyama said.

    "It is extremely regrettable that the case has caused inconvenience to people," he added in regard to Friday's arrest of Ozawa's aide, Tomohiro Ishikawa, a DPJ lawmaker in connection with a shady land purchase in the Setagaya district of Tokyo by Ozawa's fund management body involving an unregistered 400 million yen.

    Hatoyama stated during the convention that he hopes Ozawa will prove his innocence and do his best to perform his duty as secretary general, while urging the party members to help run the government for the next four years on a united front, meanwhile opposition parties were bawling their protests over the scandals to the press, knowing that the recent controversy is chipping away at the DPJ's electorate's confidence in the ruling coalition.

    Senior officials from both the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party both publicly chastised Hatoyama's decision to continue to back Ozawa, calling for the Secretary-General to be more transparent if he has nothing to hide -- more than alluding to his lack of openness on the matter being a possible sign of his transgression.

    Meanwhile, Ozawa, during the convention, suggested that he may call upon Acting Secretary General Azuma Koshiishi to relieve him of some of his duties over the coming months, as he wrestles with the authorities to resolve the matter in a bid to redeem himself to his peers and the public and abrogate his tainted image.

    The convention, as much as it was forced away from its original agenda, did lead to the DPJ assembly members setting policies for the coming year including setting a target to secure a majority in the upcoming upper-house election so that the party can smoothly enact laws to implement what it promised to the public during campaigning for last year's lower house election.

    The DPJ, to consolidate its power, needs to secure an overall majority in the upper-house, as well as the cooperation from its junior coalition parties, the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party, both of which don't see eye to eye on a number of pertinent issues with its majority constituent, further adding to the woes of Japan's ruling administration.