``The task of marking out the border is complete after seven years of work,'' he said.

``The documents are ready to be signed. It will be done at the next summit between the heads of state or government this year, either in Moscow or in Beijing.'' Russia and China share a 4,250-kilometre border. The two countries have resolved the issue of who has sovereignty over 2,444 uninhabited islands along the Amur River and other waterways which separate their two vast territories to the east.

``The islands have been divided equally, according to number and size, with 1,281 islands going to China and 1,163 to Russia,'' the spokesman said.

Three islands, two in Ussuri close to the eastern city of Khabarovsk and one in Argun, whose fate has not yet been decided, will for the time being remain under Russian jurisdiction``but discussions are continuing to reach a definitive settlement'', the diplomat said. The Chinese foreign ministry had no immediate comment.

While the two countries have disputed their border since the seventeenth century, the last fighting erupted in March 1969. China and the then Soviet Union clashed over the island of Damansky, known as Zhenbao in Chinese, in Ussuri, leaving hundreds dead.

More clashes happened in June that year close to Yumin in China's northwestern Xinjiang province, on what is now the border between China and the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan. Sino-Soviet ties were only normalised in 1989, and in 1991 the two huge neighbours finally began to demarcate their border.