Deadlock in Russia islands row

Japan and Russia failed to make progress in resolving a territorial dispute in their latest talks, remaining sharply at odds on the issue, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said Tuesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) and his Japanese counterpart Katsuya Okada take their seats at the start of a joint press in Moscow on December 28. Japan and Russia failed to make progress in resolving a territorial dispute in their latest talks, remaining sharply at odds on the issue, Okada said.

"There are huge differences between the positions of each country," Okada said after returning from talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Monday.

"I told him that it is a problem that there has been no tangible progress in the territorial issue," Okada told reporters.

The neighbours have yet to sign a World War II peace treaty because they both lay claim to four islands off northern Japan seized in 1945 by Soviet troops, who expelled Japanese residents.

The disputed territory is known as the South Kurils by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan.

In Moscow, foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko called for a "respectful and attentive approach" on the issue.

"The creation of trust, which is necessary to finding a solution on mutual agreement to the problem of a peace accord, is a sensitive process that requires a respectful and attentive approach to the position of one's partner," he said in a televised briefing.

World War II was an "especially sensitive" issue for Russia due to the huge Soviet loss of life, he added.

Lavrov said Monday that Russia was ready to explore "original" solutions to the dispute but did not elaborate. Okada said there was no new proposal by Moscow on how to tackle the issue.

He ruled out cooperating with Russia in the economic development of the islands before the territorial row was resolved.

"Economy and politics are two wheels of one cart, but I told him (Lavrov) that without progress in politics, or the territorial issue, the cart won't roll properly," Okada said.

Last month, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that Moscow's proposal to return two of the islands would be unacceptable to the Japanese people.