Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and visiting former Russian President Boris Yeltsin discussed on Tuesday the need to boost bilateral trust in dealing with political issues as well as energy projects.

"I told (Yeltsin) we should map out activities through which we can develop trust" to resolve Japan's claims on Russian-held islands and sign a post-World War II peace treaty, Koizumi said.

They also discussed the need for negotiating the issues in line with bilateral documents, including the 1993 Tokyo Declaration.

The declaration acknowledges the territorial dispute and commits the two countries to work out a peace treaty.

Soviet troops seized the three islands and a group of islets off Hokkaido at the end of the war. The dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty.

Yeltsin told reporters separately that he and Koizumi also talked about a plan to construct oil pipelines in Siberia and transport natural gas to Japan from Sakhalin.

The former president, on a trip to Japan that will also take him to Kagoshima Prefecture, said they discussed bilateral cooperation in various sectors, including politics, culture, defense and industry.

Group to be scrapped

Staff report An international organization aimed at providing aid to Russia and the four disputed Russian-held islands off Hokkaido is expected to be scrapped by the middle of this month, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The Cooperation Committee, affiliated with the Foreign Ministry, will complete its work after settling its accounts and returning the leftover money to the government. As of February, there was roughly 13.3 billion yen in its account.

The committee came under scrutiny last year when scandals involving House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki came to light. Suzuki was arrested in June for bribery, and the scandals exposed the panel's shoddy management.

Suzuki has admitted he influenced the bidding for some of Japan's humanitarian aid projects on the four disputed islands.

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi had expressed her intention to scrap the Cooperation Committee by the end of fiscal 2002 and all aid projects for building facilities on the islands were canceled.

Since its foundation in January 1993, the committee provided a total of about 59.5 billion yen, including some 9 billion yen to residents of the four islands.