Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi left for Moscow on Sunday afternoon to attend the World War II anniversary celebrations and meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In the meeting on Monday, the leaders are expected to talk about Putin's visit to Japan at an early stage. Tokyo had hoped to realize the visit in early this year, but a bitter territorial dispute has put it on hold.

Koizumi initially suggested he would not go to Moscow to attend the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi, citing busy official schedule. The move later was criticized as a reluctance of facing up to Japan's war-time wrongdoing.

Japan has been under criticism for trying to gloss over its atrocities committed in the war, while Germany, its war-time ally, is credited with relentless efforts to uproot the legacy of Nazism.

The decades-old row on the sovereignty of a string of islands off Japan's northern Hokkaido Prefecture has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to visit Japan late May to pave the way for Putin's travel.

(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2005)