MOSCOW Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visits Japan Tuesday seeking to expand Russian business ties with Tokyo but is unlikely to give concessions on a decades-old islands dispute that holds back relations.

With a high-powered delegation in tow, Putin will hold a day of talks including meetings with current and former premiers, the country's main opposition party and a lunch with Russian and Japanese businessmen.

Putin is due to arrive in Japan late on Monday following a whistle-stop visit to the Russian Far East city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

During the 2000-2008 presidency of Putin, Russia did not budge one inch on the dispute over the Pacific islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and in Russia as the Southern Kurils.

Yury Ushakov, a veteran diplomat and Putin's deputy chief of staff, cautioned Japan ahead of the visit against any “inflated expectations and therefore disappointment. We are ready to discuss, to some degree, hypothetical situations,” he told reporters. “We are not ready to give up the islands.” The main purpose of the visit is to intensify economic ties and stress that the territorial dispute should not hamper business cooperation, he said.

Russia has linked progress on the dispute to closer economic ties with Japan, while Tokyo maintains that the absence of a peace treaty stymies business relations.

The two countries have never signed a peace treaty ending World War II because of the dispute over the islands, which were seized by the Soviets in 1945.

Analysts in Japan concede that Putin's visit would not lead to a breakthrough in the territorial row.—AFP