Influential former Diet member Muneo Suzuki, an unofficial adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Russian affairs, argued Wednesday that Japan should take ¡°a realistic approach¡± on the reversion of four disputed islands off Hokkaido, first asking for some of the islets rather than taking an all-at-once approach.

Suzuki, head of the Hokkaido-based New Party Daichi, made the remarks during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents¡¯ Club in Tokyo. Suzuki has met Abe six times this year to discuss the long-standing Northern Territories issue, the former lawmaker said.

Suzuki declined to comment at the news conference when questioned whether Abe held similar views on the issue.

But just a day earlier, Suzuki said during a party attended by Abe in Tokyo that he and the prime minister ¡°had a shared understanding¡± on how to solve the territorial dispute, reports said. Suzuki did not elaborate further.

Suzuki is known as an advocate of the ¡°two-track¡± approach to the issue, which calls for the initial return of Shikotan and the Habomai islets and then continues negotiations over the remaining two islands, Kunashiri and Etorofu.

¡°If you keep sticking to the sovereignty issue of the four islets, no progress will be made,¡± Suzuki said at the FCCJ. ¡°I believe the prime minister has some ideas to break this stalemate.¡±

Abe has met Russian President Vladimir Putin a number of times in recent months to discuss the territorial dispute, which has prevented the two countries from concluding a peace treaty more than 70 years after the end of World War II.

Abe appeared to be trying to win concessions from Putin by offering large-scale economic development assistance to the Russian Far East.

Putin has meanwhile argued that neither country should been seen as a winner in the dispute, instead calling for ¡°a draw.¡±

Putin is currently scheduled to visit Abe¡¯s home turf in Yamaguchi Prefecture in December. That meeting is expected to be the final showdown in the ongoing Abe-Putin territorial negotiations.