Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Monday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would like to visit Russia to solve the long-standing territorial dispute.

"President (Vladimir) Putin will visit Japan this year. If necessary, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would like to pay a fresh visit to Russia for the return of the Northern Territory," Machimura said at a national rally here.

Japan and Russia are frustrated in setting a specific timetable for a planned visit by Russian President Putin to Tokyo this year.

Reading from a message from Koizumi, who was absent due to a cold, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masaaki Yamazaki said the Japanese government "will make steady efforts to advance negotiations."

Japan has been urging Russia to return four islands off its northern Hokkaido Prefecture. They were controlled by the Soviet Union after the World War II.

The Japanese government said the returning of all four islands is the prerequisite for post-war peace treaty with Russia. However, Moscow insists that only two will be handed over based on an agreement signed with Japan in 1956.

The rally aiming at an early return of the islands was the 25th of its kind held on the 150 anniversary of the conclusion of a bilateral commerce and friendship treaty.

(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2005)