"It is a very complicated and sensitive problem," its head Konstantin Kosachev said. Such a statement would only fuel tensions, he stressed.
The Duma debate around the ownership of the southern Kurile islands unfolded after Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow recognizes the 1956 Soviet-Japanese declaration. Under it, Russia views the possibility of passing two southern Kurile islands - Shikotan and Habomai - to Japan in the event of the conclusion of a peace treaty with Japan.
For their part, the Japanese authorities said they were going to insist on getting all the four islands of the Kurile chain.
The draft statement On the Lack of a Territorial Problem in Relations Between Russia and Japan has been submitted by the Homeland faction. Co-author Natalya Narochnitskaya of the committee said: "We would like to uncrown the Japanese territorial arguments and say that the problem exists because Tokyo cannot accept the results of World War II."
She also noted that cooperation with Japan can develop without a peace treaty.
Another two drafts were prepared by Duma vice-speaker Georgy Boos and members of the international committee.
Both drafts are essentially alike, Mr. Kosachev said. Parliamentarians support the recent declaration by the Russian president and the foreign minister, which reiterate the invariability of the Russian position on the territorial problem.
At the same time, the committee has come to the conclusion that, however worded, any statement of the State Duma on this "sensitive theme" may do harm to Russian-Japanese relations.
