The country's ruling and main opposition parties agreed Friday to pass the government's supplementary budget bill on May 3 after sorting out their differences on its allocation, party officials said.

The government's proposal, which was unveiled on Tuesday, calls for an extra budget of 17.3 trillion won (US$15.4 billion) to boost the sluggish economy. Of the total, 12 trillion won has been set aside to meet the government's expected revenue shortfalls, while the remaining 5.3 trillion won will be injected into the economy.

While both the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) agree that the portion of government spending should be increased in order to properly stimulate the economy, differences remain over how it should be allocated.

Pending a compromise, the two parties agreed to extend the current parliamentary session ending April 30 and pass the bill on May 3. If they fail to meet that deadline, they will try again on May 6.

According to the opposition party, the extra budget should be spent on creating more jobs in the public sector and turning non-regular jobs into regular ones.

However, the ruling party has opposed the idea, saying it should be used to produce more immediate results.

The extra budget bill comes as the country's economy is showing signs of losing its momentum in the face of lingering uncertainty at home and abroad.

Last month, the government slashed its growth outlook for this year to 2.3 percent from the 3 percent it predicted in December. (Yonhap News)