The government is leaning closer to accepting a two-stage accord over four disputed islands off Hokkaido in which Russia would hand over two of them with assurances that the remaining two will also eventually be returned, government sources said Sunday.
The government and the ruling coalition -- the Liberal Democratic party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party -- are coming around to the interim proposal "in order to make any progress over the territorial issue," the sources said.
The dispute -- involving the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan and the Habomai group of islets -- has prevented the two countries from concluding a peace treaty, meaning they are still technically in a state of war. The islands were seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War II.