Russia, Japan sign economic accord
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-21 18:46

The Russian Cabinet last year endorsed the Japanese-backed route to the Pacific coast, but then decided the destination for its first stage would be near the Chinese border.

Putin, who first visited Japan in September 2000, has reaffirmed Moscow's adherence to a 1956 declaration in which the Soviet Union said it was ready to hand two of the four islands in the Kuril chain to Japan.

But officials in Tokyo said Japan wants all four islands back, and talks have stalled.

"The territorial dispute is certainly an extremely difficult issue and it is not an issue that can be solved easily," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said earlier Monday.