Japan's transport minister said Tuesday he will delegate responsibility for drawing up a restructuring plan for Japan Airlines Corp. (9205.TO) to a newly established task force for the time being.

"I want to monitor how the task force will work" on the plan, Seiji Maehara, Japan's Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, said at a press conference.

Last Friday, the government set up a new five-member panel to advise on the Japanese airline's revival. As a result, the deadline for finalizing JAL's restructuring plan - determined by a previous panel under Japan's former government - was put off by two months until the end of November.

The task force will outline a draft of the restructuring plan by the end of October, Maehara said.

The new framework came after the transport minister said last Thursday that he was "skeptical about the feasibility of JAL's rehabilitation plan," following a meeting earlier that day with JAL Chief Executive Haruka Nishimatsu who asked for public funds to boost capital at the ailing carrier.

Damaged by a sharp drop in global travel, the airline reported its largest-ever quarterly net loss of Y99 billion in the three months to June. For this business year through March, it is predicting a net loss of Y63 billion.

Among its own revival initiatives, the Tokyo-based company began separate tie-up talks with Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Airlines parent AMR Corp., with the U.S. firms potentially investing in their Japanese peer to enhance their services in Asia.

-By Yoshio Takahashi, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6895-7561; yoshio.takahashi@dowjones.com