Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia September 12, 2018. Valery Sharifulin/TASS Host Photo Agency/Pool via REUTERS

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he was not joking when he proposed that he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sign a peace treaty by the end of the year.

Russia and Japan are in dispute over a chain of Pacific islands and as a result have still not formally ended their World War Two hostilities.

Sitting alongside Abe at an economic forum in the Russian Far East, Putin proposed concluding an unconditional peace treaty by the end of the year. Abe did not give a response.