Moscow says it knows nothing about Japan's new policy

The Russian government has known nothing about Japan's new policy on relations with Russia, a spokesman of the Russian Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

The Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun reported Sunday that the Japanese government had issued a new policy on relations with Russia, which would be a shift from its previous stand of promoting bilateral relations in a wide range of areas not limitedto the issue on the four disputed islands. The new policy will refocus on a decades-old dispute over the southern Kuril islands in negotiations between the two sides, the daily said.

The spokesman said the report by Japanese media was not worth commenting. On signing a peace treaty, Russia's stance is to continue negotiations and seek resolutions accepted by both sides.Russia hoped to develop full-scale relations with Japan, he said.

After the World War Two, ties between the two countries had been at standstill due to the ownership of the four disputed islands. Bilateral relations have been improved and developed after the Japanese government gave up its policy principle of "inseparable politics and economy" in 1994. But the island row has prevented Russia and Japan from signing the post-war peace treaty

Source: Xinhua