Japan to stop aid to Russia's South Kuril Islands

TOKYO, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - The Japanese government has resolved to halt humanitarian aid to Russia's South Kuril Islands after the Russian side rejected it, Japan's Yomiuri newspaper said on Sunday.

The aid, provided to the islands since early 1990s, will be stopped on April 1, 2010, when the new fiscal year begins in Japan.

The aid was to help tackle social and economic problems, aggravated by the devastating quake, which hit the island in 1994.

Russia informed Japan in August that there was "no need for further Japanese humanitarian aid" to the Far Eastern islands in the center of decades-old territorial dispute.

Tokyo's continued claim over four South Kuril islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and Habomai) has so far prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal peace treaty to end World War II hostilities.