Russian economic development and trade minister against ceding Kuril Islands to Japan

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, September 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said Saturday that the ceding of the Kuril Islands to Japan was inadmissible. "These islands should remain Russian," Gref told a Japanese journalist. "We shall take every effort to develop the islands and their economy to let the Japanese visit them." The financing of the Kuril Islands from the federal budget will be increased tenfold in 2006, the minister said adding that the financing would not be reduced in the following years. The Soviet Union acquired the four Kuril Islands, Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Habomai, in 1945. According to the 1951 peace treaty that Japan concluded with the allies, the former renounced all rights and claims to Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. In 1956, the USSR and Japan signed a joint declaration which stipulated for the disputed group being divided between the two nations, Russia keeping the two northernmost islands and ceding Shikotan and the Habomais to Japan if the two countries signed a peace treaty. This treaty was not signed but the four islands are still claimed by Japan, which refers to them as the Northern Territories.