Japan seeks Russia's backing on antipollution effort
MOSCOW - Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan today will seek Moscow's support for a new global initiative to curb greenhouse gases when he has his first meeting with Russia's outgoing and incoming presidents.
Japan will host this year's Group of Eight summit on its northern island of Hokkaido and wants to find a more effective replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which expires in 2012.
Fukuda is to have talks with president-elect Dmitry Medvedev, who will be sworn in as head of state on May 7, and with President Vladimir Putin, who is stepping down but will stay on as prime minister.
The main aims of Fukuda's visit are to "establish a personal relationship of trust with President Putin and president-elect Medvedev, and second, to prepare for the upcoming G-8 summit," said a Japanese foreign ministry official.
Japanese officials said a territorial dispute over four islands in the Pacific, a running issue in relations between the two countries since World War II, will be touched on briefly.
Tokyo hopes the G-8 summit will help draft a new climate change agreement that would embrace the biggest polluters such as the United States, China, and India. None of these has signed up to the Kyoto Protocol's limits on emissions.
Russia, a G-8 member, was one of the biggest emerging economies to sign up to Kyoto commitments. Japanese officials hope Moscow will support a successor agreement in Hokkaido.
The disputed islands, known in Russia as the Southern Kuriles and in Japan as the Northern Territories, lie just north of the G-8 summit venue in Hokkaido.
The islands were seized by Soviet troops in the last days of World War II, and since then neither side has recognized the other's sovereignty over them. The issue has prevented Russia and Japan from signing a treaty ending wartime hostilities.
Tokyo has voiced frustration that talks on the issue have been stalled for the past five years. But Fukuda is expected to tread softly on the dispute in Moscow. Russia has said it is ready to talk about the dispute, but has given no sign it is prepared to give up the islands.
Trade between Russia and Japan was worth $20 billion last year, driven by automakers such as 
