South Korea's Cabinet approved Tuesday the parliament's decision to increase the number of parliament seats to 300 from the current 299, despite public criticism directed at self-serving lawmakers.

The move came a day after the parliament endorsed a revised electoral district plan that increased the number of electoral districts to 246 and the number of parliamentary seats to 300.

The revision will eliminate two constituencies, one in the conservative bastion and the other in the liberal stronghold, and add three in Paju, Wonju and the new administrative city of Sejong, the site for the relocation of government agencies starting this year.

The bill was approved in the plenary session Monday, earning 52. 9 percent of the votes. Ninety-two lawmakers voted yes for the bill, while 39 voted nay and 43 abstained.

Until recently, rival parties were low-key about readjusting electoral boundaries for fear that the public will turn its back against them ahead of the April general elections.

The foot-dragging prompted the National Election Commission to weigh in last week and suggest that the number of parliamentary seats be set at 200, a proposal both the conservative ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party accepted.

The number of parliamentary seats here has seen a continuous rise since the country elected a 200-seat parliament in 1948, except when the number went down to 273 in 2000 following the Asian financial crisis.

The latest hike in the number has copped public criticism that lawmakers are self-interested and uninterested in other pending, more urgent issues.

The potential sale of over-the-counter drugs at local supermarkets and corruption scandals involving savings banks were among the issues that gained far more public attention than the demarcation of the electoral boundaries.

President Lee Myung-bak has reportedly voiced disapproval of the increase in the parliamentary seats, though he does not plan to scuttle it.

"President Lee reacted fairly negatively (to the news)," Seoul' s Yonhap News Agency quoted a senior presidential official as saying.

"We're keeping a close watch over public opinions, though we can't say (the president is) going to exercise a veto," the unnamed official told Yonhap.