TOKYO, Feb 7: Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said Saturday he would work on a solution to a long-festering territorial row with Russia ahead of a possible summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev later this month.

Japan demands the return of four islands called the southern Kuril islands by Russia and known in Japan as the Northern Territories which Soviet troops seized days after Tokyo’s surrender in World War II in 1945.

The two countries have never signed a peace treaty formally ending the war due to the dispute.

“I will negotiate (with Russia) with a strong determination to make progress and solve the territorial issue,” Aso said at a government-backed annual convention which demands the return of the islands off Japan’s northern coast.

Aso said the Russian president “has expressed his strong desire for solving the territorial issue”.

“I want to solve the issue of retrieving the four islands and sign a peace treaty,” Aso said, speaking on Japan’s Northern Territories Day, which marks the anniversary of an 1855 treaty in which Russia recognised the islands as Japanese.

Russia and Japan have frequently clashed over fishing rights, with Russian border security authorities often capturing Japanese fishermen especially near the disputed islands.

In the latest capture, Russian authorities late last month seized a Japanese fishing boat with 10 crew members, who were released on Saturday, according to the Japanese consulate in Vladivostok.

The company that owns the fishing boat had agreed to pay a settlement last week. It declined to disclose the sum.

The No. 38 Yoshi Maru was seized by Russian authorities in waters between the two countries and was taken to the Russian. But in a rare case, the 122-tonne ship was seized in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) as it was crab fishing about 480 kilometres (300 miles) north of Japan.—AFP