Russia says detains Japan ship for illegal fishing

MOSCOW, Jan 22 (Reuters) Russian border guards detained a Japanese trawler with seven crew for illegally fishing in its territorial waters, a spokesman for Russia's border guards said today.

Diplomatic relations between Japan and Russia soured last August after a Russian patrol shot dead a Japanese sailor on board a boat fishing off the same Kunashiri island site.

Kunashiri is part of a group of islands called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kuriles in Russia whose ownership has been disputed since the end of World War Two.

''Two Japanese ships were discovered yesterday morning in the territorial waters of Russia by border guards,'' said Sergei Kalysh, a border guard spokesman. ''Both ships tried to escape when they heard the warning call of the border guards.'' A Russian patrol apprehended one of the boats with seven crew members on board but the other escaped, Kalysh said.

The patrol boat was shadowing the fishing boat back to the Russian port of Yuzhno-Kurilsk.

Prosecutors will now decide whether to press charges against the Japanese boat for using unregistered fishing equipment, fishing in Russian waters and ignoring an order from the border guards, Kalysh said.

REUTERS SP BD1730