Dmitry Rogozin, chairman of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, urged Japan on Friday to accept a "compromise" in its territorial dispute with Russia and suggested the two countries split the possession of two main islands out of the four disputed islands off Hokkaido.

The Russian government has already indicated that it is ready to return the two smaller of the four islands, but Tokyo insists it wants all four back.

The four islands -- Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islets -- were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. Russia identifies the four islands as the southern Kurils while they are known as the Northern Territories in Japan.

Rogozin, speaking to a group of Japanese reporters ahead of a visit to Japan, said Russian President Vladimir Putin "supports an early resolution" of the territorial issue and he himself believes a settlement should be based on a 1956 Japan-Soviet declaration that commits Moscow to returning Shikotan and Habomai to Japan.