TOKYO- Japan's parliament on Friday passed a record 13.9-trillion-yen (S$212 billion) supplementary budget for fiscal 2009 designed to turn around the recession-hit economy.

The extra budget will finance most of a stimulus package announced by Prime Minister Taro Aso in April, which totalled 15.4 trillion yen, or about three percent of gross domestic product.

The stimulus plan, designed to pull the world's number two economy out of its worst post-war slump, includes money for renewable energy development, unemployment support and new spending on medical and nursing care.

The government pushed the bill through the legislature despite its rejection in the opposition-controlled upper house. Japan's constitution allows the lower house to override the upper house in budget matters.

Japan last week said its economy, Asia's biggest, suffered its sharpest contraction on record in the first quarter, shrinking 4.0 percent compared with the previous three-month period.

Aso, who faces elections this year, has said the stimulus package will help boost Japan's economy by about two percent this year. -AFP