Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori indicated Tuesday that Japan may accept a two-stage interim accord in which Russia gives back two of a group of disputed islands, with the eventual return of the remaining territories also assured, as a step toward realizing a peace treaty.
Speaking to reporters aboard a government plane headed for New York, Mori acknowledged for the first time that Japan and Russia may not be able to conclude the peace treaty by the end of the year, as hoped, because of Russia's domestic difficulties in resolving the territorial row.
The dispute -- involving the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan and the Habomai islets -- have prevented the two countries from concluding a peace treaty. The islands off Hokkaido were seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War II.
Mori arrived in New York on Tuesday to attend the three-day U.N. Millennium Summit that opened Wednesday, having left Tokyo after two days of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.