Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Japanese counterpart Yoriko Kawaguchi that Moscow "intends to launch intense joint work with Tokyo ahead of President Putin's visit to Tokyo in 2005."

But Ivanov added after the talks that "I would not like to speak of date of when a peace agreement can be reached."

Russia would "pursue dialogue on all aspects of bilateral relations and international problems," he said at the start of their meeting in Moscow.

However, talks on reaching a peace treaty following World War II remain deadlocked by the dispute over the Kurils -- four Pacific islands in the chain that stretches from northern Japan to the tip of Russia's Kamchatka peninsula.

"Our territorial dispute is unresolved. We still are far apart on this issue so we do not expect any breakthroughs," the Russian envoy to Japan, Alexander Losyukov, said in an interview released by the foreign ministry here.

Soviet troops seized the islands in the waning days of World War II, but Japan still claims them as its Northern Territories. The issue has prevented the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty nearly 60 years since the end of the war.

The border row threatens to overshadow a visit by Putin to Japan early next year, to mark the anniversary on February 7 of 150 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Yet despite the unresolved dispute, the two countries are major commercial partners and Tokyo is lobbying for an oil pipeline route to the Pacific which would give its energy-hungry market access to supplies of Siberian crude.

Kawaguchi is expected to press further for Russia to build a major 4,200-kilometer (2,600-mile) oil pipeline from oil fields in eastern Siberia to the Far East port of Nakhodka, rather than building a competing pipe to China.

Russia has been toying with both options, but in late March indicated that it could favor the Japanese route, which is expected to cost between 10 and 13 billion dollars.

Japan argues that the Nakhodka route would also be a strategic asset for Russia, allowing it to export to other Asian countries and perhaps the US West Coast.

On the environmental side, Japan wants Russia to sign the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement designed to cut emission and slow global warming.

Russia's signature is needed in order for the agreement to take effect, but Moscow has been slow to ratify the protocol, holding out for better conditions.

Finally, Russia and Japan are members of the six nations, along with China, North Korea, South Korea and United States, trying to resolve the standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

The third round of negotiations aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear arsenal opened in Beijing on Wednesday. The previous two rounds have ended with only agreements to continue the talks and Pyongyang pressing ahead with its nuclear program.

SPACE.WIRE