Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a summit meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Nagato, Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan, December 15, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

TOKYO (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had discussed the possibility of a peace treaty and that economic cooperation would help establish full ties.

A territorial dispute between the two countries has prevented them from signing a peace treaty formally ending World War Two. The two leaders have been meeting in Japan to seek progress on ending the dispute over four remote islands.

Abe has pledged to resolve it in the hope of leaving a diplomatic legacy that eluded his foreign minister father, and of building better ties with Russia to counter a rising China.