Putin arrives in Japan for talks with prime minister

Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrived in Japan Sunday on a business-oriented visit that is unlikely to bring any progress in settling a 60-year territorial dispute between the two nations.

Putin has warned he wouldn't discuss ceding control of the four Pacific Ocean islands located just off the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido, which were seized by the Soviet army in the closing days of the World War II.

The controversy over the four tiny, sparsely populated islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, has prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a peace treaty to formally end their wartime hostilities, reported AP. P.T.