ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 13, 1993                   TAG: 9310130090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Short

YELTSIN BRINGS APOLOGY ON STATE VISIT TO JAPAN

Boris Yeltsin tried to improve relations with Japan by apologizing Tuesday for Soviet abuse of Japanese prisoners from World War II and promising to settle a decades-old territorial dispute.

The Russian president's three-day state visit may not produce major breakthroughs, but he appears intent on improving ties that have been chilly since the war ended and Soviet troops seized four northern islands from Japan.

Yeltsin invited Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa to visit Moscow, and Hosokawa accepted. The two leaders also agreed to begin twice-yearly meetings of their foreign ministers.

- Associated Press 


 by CNB