TOKYO, Feb. 13 -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday that he hopes the territorial disputes between Japan and Russia could be resolved over his tenure, local media reported.

"I am determined that I have somehow to resolve this problem while prime minister," Abe told a Diet committee, referring to the disputed islands which prevent the two countries from reaching a peace treaty since the end of World War II.

Japan and Russia are at odds over a group of islands north off Japan's Hokkaido. The islets are known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.

"I'll make full efforts to address the serious challenges of resolving the question of which country the four islands belong to and concluding a peace treaty," said the prime minister.

He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 8 in Sochi, Russia after attending the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics for the fifth bilateral summit with the Russian leader since Abe returned to the post in December 2012.

"I was able to share (with Putin) an awareness of having to end the abnormal situation in which no peace treaty has been signed" between the two countries following the war, Abe said of the meeting in Sochi.

According to Japan's Kyodo News, the two leaders are scheduled to meet again in June, when Russian will host a Group of Eight summit in Sochi.