Kurils Deal Linked to Economic Ties.

(From The Moscow Times)

TOYAKO, Japan Japanese Prime Minister Jasuo Fukuda took eight aides into his talks with President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of a G8 summit on Tuesday. Medvedev arrived with five aides.

Still, the officials failed to reach a resolution over the disputed Kuril Islands, with the Russian side linking a deal to closer economic ties with Japan.

A solution to the "complex problem" requires a "good atmosphere," including increased economic and humanitarian ties, Medvedev's top foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko, who participated in the meeting, told reporters.

Japan, however, believes that closer economic ties are stymied by the dispute over the Kurils, which it wants back after the Soviet Union seized them during World War II, and the lack of a postwar peace treaty.

Fukuda made no public comment about the Kurils on Tuesday, instead indicating hope that negotiations would be easier with Medvedev than his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, and that rule of law would be protected in Russia.

"I noticed that after you assumed the office of the president you proclaimed new directions, first and foremost attaching great importance to the protection of freedom and the supremacy of law," he told Medvedev.