Putin and Abe discuss peace treaty over Kuril islands

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today pledged to move forward on a peace treaty to solve a territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands.

The Soviet takeover of the islands in the closing days of world war II has poisoned relations between the two countries for 70 years.

"We believe it is important to patiently continue the search for a solution that would satisfy the interests of Russia and Japan and that would be accepted by the nations of both countries," Putin said at a news conference following the talks. He added that Russia would "assist" in allowing Japanese citizens to visit the Kuril islands.

"Solving (the dispute) is not easy but we would like to end it within the lifetime of our generation," Abe said.

He added that Tokyo was "thankful" to Moscow for allowing Japanese citizens to visit the graves of relatives on the islands.

Earlier, Abe said he hoped for a "new breakthrough" in settling the territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands and that he was "ready to reinforce cooperation in a calm but energetic manner."