The top Defense Agency bureaucrat will visit Russia in January, marking a resumption of defense dialogue suspended when a Japanese naval officer was found in September to have passed classified documents to a Russian military attache, according to Japanese defense officials.

The decision to have Ken Sato, administrative vice defense minister, travel to Russia was made Tuesday at a Tokyo meeting between Defense Agency chief Kazuo Torashima and visiting Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, the officials said.

The last time the two countries' defense ministers met was in August 1999, when then Defense Agency chief Hosei Norota met Sergeyev in Moscow.

Japanese and Russian defense relations have been on hold since September, when Maritime Self-Defense Force Lt. Cmdr. Shigehiro Hagisaki was charged with passing defense intelligence to Tokyo-based Russian military attache Viktor Bogatenkov, who was later identified as a GRU intelligence agent.

Hagisaki, who was sacked from the MSDF in late October, pleaded guilty Monday at his first hearing before the Tokyo District Court.

In their meeting, Torashima told Sergeyev he "regretted" the incident, which Sergeyev characterized as "painful," the officials said.

Sergeyev, on a three-day visit ending today, was quoted as saying that Russian defense interests will shift to Central and Southern Asia from the Far East, and that Moscow will cut back its military presence in the Far East and Siberia by 20 percent.

Sergeyev also proposed joint exercises "engaging not only the two country's fleets, but also their land forces and aviation."

On the controversial plan by Japan and the United States to build a theater missile defense system, Sergeyev asked Japan to keep "balance," the Japanese officials said. Russia staunchly opposes the plan.