Russia considers it "inappropriate" to offer state guarantees sought by Japan on the Siberia-Pacific pipeline project, Russian President Vladimir Putin said here late Saturday.
"The Japanese want an inter-governmental accord, while we consider this to be a commercial project. It is inappropriate to give state guarantees," the Russian leader told a news conference on the sidelines of the G-8 summit he is presiding over in Saint-Petersburg.
Putin confirmed during a visit to Tokyo last November that Japan would have access to central Siberia's oil resources by way of the future pipeline.
Japan hopes to clinch a deal with Moscow over the early construction of the pipeline, slated to run to the coast of the Sea of Japan, to beat its powerful rival China and become chief beneficiary of the 4,118-kilometer pipeline.