TOKYO, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Friday to work harder toward achieving a bilateral peace treaty, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported.

Abe told Putin through a telephone conversation that the two sides should find a "mutually acceptable" solution for the dispute islets that was called the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.

The dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty since the second World War.

During the conversation, Putin also invite Abe to visit Moscow next year, according to Kyodo.