Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited on Tuesday one of the four Pacific islands claimed by Japan.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited on Tuesday one of the four Pacific islands claimed by Japan.

The Russian government announced that Medvedev had arrived at Mendeleyevo airport on the island of Kunashir which lies just north of Japan's Hokkaido island for his second trip to the disputed Kuril islands chain.

Medvedev headed a major delegation to Kunashir including Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Russia's Far East supremo Viktor Ishaev and Regional Development Minister Oleg Govorun.

He was expected to inspect a range of industrial and social objects as well as talking to local residents, Russian state media said.

The visit is the second visit, following his first voyage to the islands in November 2010, when Medvedev was still a president.

The two nations have never formally signed a World War II peace treaty because Japan maintains its claim over the islands, which Russia has controlled and tried to develop since Japan's surrender at the end of the war.

Tokyo claims the chain's four southernmost islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan, and the dispute continues to cast a cloud over Russian-Japanese relations and complicate investment and trade.