Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle is working on settling the long overdue state budget, despite being on the other side of the world.

In a conference call Tuesday with reporters from Tokyo to share the accomplishments of his trip so far, Doyle described the current state budget situation as "ridiculous."

"It's time for [budget committee members] to make the compromises and reach an agreement and get a budget on my desk that they know is acceptable to me and I'll sign," Doyle said.

Although he has been meeting with Japanese corporations and business leaders while out of the country, Doyle said he has also been working with the budget committee "every single day."

"I have people who are assigned to work on it day and night, I have personally been in touch on many, many occasions with legislative leaders," Doyle said. "I wish I could pass a budget — it's not in my power."

When asked if he would be willing influence Democratic representatives to compromise on the budget — because Republicans were unwilling to — Doyle, a Democrat, dismissed the idea.

"I'm not going to publicly get into making one side negotiate and not the other," Doyle said. "That's not the way to reach a deal."

Doyle added both he and his team are working to make sure the state has an acceptable education budget, the university is funded and everyone is in agreement on health care.

While Doyle said the controversial Senate health care plan was not included in his proposed budget, he said he did support an affordable health care product.

"What I want to get done in this budget is to make sure that we move forward in getting the kids in our state insured and getting a basic health care product available for working people who currently can't afford health insurance," Doyle said.

Mike Prentiss, spokesperson for Senator Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the Senator was "frustrated that the Governor isn't taking a more active personal role in trying to break through this log jam."

"Before the governor left for his trip, [Fitzgerald] thought the governor should have stayed in Wisconsin to focus most of his time in trying to resolve this," Prentiss said. "The governor obviously went ahead with the trip anyways and he and his staff continue to maintain that he's in contact and actively engaged."

Prentiss added he was not sure how many times Doyle had been in contact with the budget committee since he left for Japan last Friday.

In addition to budget discussions, Doyle said while in Japan, he met with many companies with hopes of establishing business relations with Wisconsin companies including Toshiba, Fuijo Cho and Sumitomo.

Although Doyle said no new deals had yet been made, he has had several meetings and seems hopeful, saying, "several things will come out of those."

When asked if the agreements with Japan and China would take jobs and business away from Wisconsin companies, Doyle said being involved with economies like China — whose middle class is expected to reach 500 million within 15 to 20 years — will benefit all.

Doyle is traveling to Shanghai today to meet with Chinese business leaders and is expected back in Wisconsin Sept. 18.