Japan is not considering solving a dispute with Russia over an island group by splitting the total area of the territory, Japan's foreign minister said yesterday.
Foreign Minister Taro Aso discussed such a split of the Russian-held islands north of Japan in parliament on Wednesday.
Yesterday he said that the discussion suggested Tokyo would make such a proposal to Moscow.
The islands -- known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Kuril islands in Russia -- were held by Tokyo but seized by Moscow in World War II.
The dispute has blocked the signing of a formal peace treaty between them.
Japan has rejected a Russian proposal to split the four islands between the two countries.
Aso on Wednesday pointed out that a deal giving each side 50 percent of the total area of the territory would give Japan three of the islands and a quarter of the northernmost one.
But Aso said it was just a theoretical discussion.
"There is no truth to a newspaper report that the government is actually considering a proposal to split the total area in half," Aso told reporters, according to the Foreign Ministry's Web site.
In parliament on Wednesday, Aso acknowledged that the years-old idea of giving the two southernmost islands to Tokyo and the two others to Moscow would apportion more territory to Russia.
Aso said under questioning by the opposition on Wednesday: "We must carry forward negotiations in a sufficiently realistic way."
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