Putin sees no change to Russia's Asia policy

SYDNEY, Sep 8 (Reuters) President Vladimir Putin told the leaders of China and Japan today that Russia's policy towards key partners in Asia will not change after he leaves office next year.

Putin told Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whom he met on the fringes of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney, it was their last meeting before the Russian presidential polls in March.

''We will hardly meet again,'' Putin, who is ending his second term and is not allowed by law to run again, told Hu.

''You and I have achieved the highest level of Russian-Chinese relations,'' he added. ''I have no doubt that Russia's policy as far as China is concerned will not be changed.'' Putin will leave to his successor an increasingly assertive Russia whose economy is on the rise. Putin enjoys strong popularity at home and his grip on political power, makes a victory of one of his allies in the polls almost sure.

But whether all of Putin's legacy will remain intact remains one of the hottest discussion points for Russia watchers.

Putin has made relations with China a strong element of his diplomacy, but it has sparked suspicion in the West of a possible revival of Russian imperialism.

The Russia-China ties, described by both leaders as ''strategic partnership'', have grown even stronger in the past few years fed by a common desire to maintain the leading role in ex-Soviet Central Asia, whose rich mineral resources are jealously eyed in the United States and Western Europe.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional group dominated by Russia and China and also comprising Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, claims the role of a security guarantor in the Central Asia.

Last month Putin and Hu attended large-scale military exercises the SCO held in Russia's Urals mountains.

Despite warm ties, influential Russian nationalists warn that ambitious China, which has a history of territorial conflicts with Moscow, could become an uncomfortable neighbour for Russia's vast but rapidly depopulating eastern territories.

Russian liberals warn from an opposite flank that close ties with China could distance Russia from Western democracies.

In another message of foreign policy's continuity, Putin told Abe that the next Russian president will not stop efforts to find a negotiated solution to a territorial row, which sours bilateral cooperation since the end of World War Two.

Japan refuses to sign a formal peace treaty with Moscow, saying it should first return four small islands seized by the Red Army in the final days of the war.

Moscow refuses to return the islands, known as Southern Kuriles in Russia and as Northern Territories in Japan. The unresolved row puts limits on bilateral economic cooperation.

Opinion polls show Russians generally back Putin's tough stance in the territorial row with Japan. But, some critics say returning the islands, one of Russia's most underdeveloped territories, could be a good solution.

''We will be looking for decisions which would be suitable for Russia and our Japanese partners,'' Putin told Abe, adding that the Sydney was their last meeting before his departure.

''Russia will continue this work ... after the presidential elections.

REUTERS LPB RK1655