The two leaders reached the agreement while attending an ice hockey game after they failed to set the schedule in an informal summit earlier in the day, the official told a press briefing Saturday night.

In their two-hour talks in the morning, Mori proposed that Putin make an official visit to Tokyo from July 24-25, following the July 21-23 summit of the Group of Eight major nations in Okinawa Prefecture, political sources said.

Putin said he would visit Japan by the end of the year, but did not agree to Mori's proposal, the sources said.

Putin's initial refusal was an embarrassment for Mori, who is on his first overseas trip since becoming prime minister.

Mori's proposal was an attempt to jump-start stalled negotiations over the two countries' plan to resolve a long-running territorial dispute and conclude a peace treaty by the end of this year.

Then Russian Prime Minister Boris Yeltsin and then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto agreed in Krasnoyarsk in 1997 to resolve the row and conclude the pact by the end of 2000. But negotiations have reached a stalemate.

The row involves the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan and the Habomai group of islets, all off the northeastern coast of Hokkaido. They were seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War II.

Mori made the initial proposal to meet in July after Putin told special Japanese envoy Muneo Suzuki in April that he would be willing to stay in Japan after the G8 summit for an official visit, or visit again in autumn for the talks.

Putin told reporters after Saturday's informal summit with Mori that a schedule for his trip to Japan should be arranged through diplomatic channels, while Mori said he would continue to try to set the date during events later Saturday.

During Saturday's talks, Mori and Putin agreed to continue working toward concluding the peace treaty this year while promoting bilateral relations in other fields.

Mori is in Russia on the first leg of a nine-day tour of G8 countries, giving him a chance to meet his counterparts before he hosts the Okinawa summit.

It is his first visit overseas since taking office earlier this month to replace his ailing predecessor, Keizo Obuchi.