It is arguably the most powerful ministry, controlling the will of the population.

"It is a disaster for us," a top official in one of Japan's most powerful ministries said tonight.

In Bonn, they kept for themselves the most powerful ministries: defense, interior and foreign affairs.

"It's a very difficult job trying to control several national banks, high profile in their own right and closely linked to powerful ministries," he said.

But the powerful Ministry of Finance has been opposed to this, because it does not want a national budget deficit.

Those compromises might have had an important effect on some of China's most powerful ministries, state-owned enterprises and military industries.

The officials were arrested in a dramatic display of force when some 100 prosecutors and investigators marched into what has been Japan's most powerful ministry.

The Ministry has long been regarded as the most powerful ministry in the Japanese government.

With the drift toward sectarian violence, the fight for control of the two most powerful ministries - defense and interior - will be venomous.

The powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry changed hands, for example.