TOKYO, Oct 19: Russia said on Friday that it wants to resolve a dispute with Japan over the Kuril islands, which has prevented them signing a treaty to end World War II. “We do not have the intention of preserving this problem. We truly want to end it,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement in Moscow.

Kamynin added that Russian-Japanese relations “must not be hostage to ‘territorial problems’ the only serious disagreement in our relationship.” Earlier, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said that Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Russian President Vladmir Putin had agreed in a telephone conversation to continue negotiating on the Kurils.

The two leaders talked ahead of meetings in Tokyo on Tuesday and Wednesday between their foreign ministers, Masahiko Komura and Sergei Lavrov.

Disputed ownership of the southern Kuril islands, captured by Soviet troops in 1945 just after Tokyo’s surrender in World War II, has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a formal peace treaty.

Japan demands the return of all four islands, which it refers to as the Northern Territories.

Fukuda, who was elected premier last month, told Putin they should work together to “bring about progress toward the solution of the territorial issue,” according to the statement.

Putin said he wanted to hold discussions with Fukuda on “all important issues including peace treaty negotiations,” the statement added.

Despite the dispute, the two sides have recently stepped up exchanges, including allowing ageing former residents in Japan to visit their ancestors’ graves.

Putin said he intended to continue talks on the peace treaty issue “regardless of the domestic political timetable,” the statement said.

The Russian president and Fukuda’s predecessor Shinzo Abe already vowed to work towards a peace treaty when they met last September on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Sydney.

Putin and Abe also pledged to hammer out “the initiative to strengthen Russian-Japanese cooperation in East Siberia and the Far East” that Tokyo has proposed as a confidence-building measure.

Commenting on the initiative, Fukuda expressed hope that the two countries would implement “reciprocal cooperation in concrete terms,” the statement said.—AFP