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Japanese foreign minister has stated that his country was not considering solving a dispute with Russia over an island group by splitting the total area of the territory, The Associated Press reported on Friday referring to a report by Kyodo News agency.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso discussed such a split of the Russian-held islands north of Japan in parliament on Wednesday. On Friday, he denied that the discussion suggested Tokyo would make such a proposal to Moscow, Kyodo reported.

The islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Kuril islands in Russia, were held by Tokyo but seized by Moscow in the closing days of World War II. The territorial dispute has blocked the signing of a formal peace treaty between them.

Japan has rejected a Russian proposal to split the four islands between them. Aso on Wednesday pointed out that a deal giving each side 50 percent of the total area of the territory would give Japan three of the islands and a quarter of the northernmost one.

But Aso said it was just a theoretical discussion.

“There is no truth to a report that the government is actually considering a proposal to split the total area in half,” Aso told reporters, according to Kyodo.

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