Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia would strengthen relations with Japan, news agencies reported.

 

This work must continue despite the political situation in Japan, Putin told a regular cabinet conference in the Kremlin.

 

Putin held a phone conversation with Japan's new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Friday, in which Putin said Russia seeks to implement the Russian-Japanese action plan and boost cultural relations and youth contacts with Japan.

 

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrives in Japan on Tuesday for a visit that aims to improve bilateral relations. Economic cooperation will also be at the top of the agenda at meetings Lavrov will attend in Tokyo.

 

Russian-Japanese trade has reached US$15 billion this year and recorded an average 50 percent annual growth since 2003, official figures show.

 

However, territorial dispute over the four islands, Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and Habomai, which are located northeast off Japan's northernmost Hokkaido and known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, has been along-standing barrier to the development of bilateral ties.

 

The four islands were occupied by Soviet troops after the end of the World War II and are currently under Russian control. Japan and Russia signed no peace treaty after the war because of the dispute.

 

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin has said that Moscow "is interested in finding such solutions which would help to conclude a peace treaty."

 

The Russian-Japanese partnership should not be a "hostage of the territorial problem," he said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2007)