SEOUL-- The ruling and main opposition parties tentatively agreed Friday to hold a National Assembly plenary session on Saturday to deal with an extra budget bill aimed at mainly supporting small businesses hit by the pandemic.

The floor leaders of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) reached a tentative agreement to hold the session at 8 p.m. Saturday as both sides continued their efforts to narrow down differences to pass the budget no later than this weekend.

The PPP and the DP have been at loggerheads for weeks over the size of the supplementary budget for compensating small businesses.

While the PPP backed the government's original proposal of 36.4 trillion won (US$29 billion), the DP proposed spending of over 50 trillion won for small merchants, which includes a budget for retroactive coverage of their losses and emergency loan programs.

The government has said it will swiftly execute the extra budget once the National Assembly approves the bill.

Source: Yonhap News Agency