Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his Japanese counterpart, Takeaki Matsumoto, held bilateral talks ahead of the G8 foreign ministers meeting in Paris.



It comes as Russia reported a slight increase in levels of radiation in Vladivostock, some 800 kilometres from Fukushima.



Despite the increase Russia says radiation levels remain within safety limits.



That is not the case in Japan where authorities say radioactivity around the quake-damaged nuclear plant is “significantly higher.”



Moscow is now on alert to evacuate its citizens from Russia’s Sakhalin island and the Southern Kuril island group, which is at the centre of a territorial dispute between the two countries.

