Deputy FM-level talks scheduled in Moscow Thurs.

Japan's Kyodo news agency says Russia and Japan are scheduled to hold deputy foreign ministerial-level talks in Moscow today, to discuss the territorial dispute between the two nations.

Both claim sovereignty over what Russia calls the Kuril Islands, and Japan calls the Northern Territories. Negotiations over the issue have been suspended since January last year. Today's meeting followed a summit between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently in New York, where the two leaders agreed to continue their efforts in resolving the long-standing row.

In fact, Russia and Japan have not yet signed a postwar peace treaty after the end of World War II, and sovereignty over the islands is one major obstacle.