Russia and Japan settle nothing

An agreement - but only to keep talking

By Moscow correspondent Robert Parsons

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed with the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori that their two countries should keep striving to reach a peace treaty, to formally end the World War Two.

The two men met in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.

But the long-postponed talks between Mr Putin and Yoshiro Mori appears to have achieved very little, not much more than the agreement that both sides should agree to continue working towards a peace deal.

That, said President Putin, was one of the main signals they had to send to the Russian and Japanese peoples.

Disputed islands

Occupied by Soviet troops in the dying days of World War II

Japan and the Soviet Union restored diplomatic relations in 1956, but a formal peace treaty was never signed because of the dispute

The islands have rich fishing grounds

The talks, which went ahead despite the uncertainty hanging over the future of the Japanese prime minister, focused on the issue that has bedevilled Russo-Japanese relations for the last 55 years.

Japan has long demanded that Russia return the four Pacific Ocean Kurile Islands, seized by the Red Army in 1945.

Moscow shows no sign of giving in to Tokyo's demands.

Despite that, Russo-Japanese relations have thawed since the end of the Cold War.

Trade has increased and Japan has signed a profitable deal with Russia on fishing around the Kurile Islands.