BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

11/01/2007

Russia-Belarus oil talks suspended till Friday

MOSCOW, January 12 (Itar-Tass) -- The talks between the Russian and Belarussian prime ministers on the transit of Russian oil to Europe have been suspended until Friday morning, the press service of the Russian government said late on Thursday.

"The talks will continue on Friday," it said.

Earlier the press service said the talks would continue through the night until Mikhail Fradkov and Sergey Sidorsky find a solution to the problem.

It said "no statements for the press will be made in the coming hours".

Opening the meeting with Sidorsky on Thursday Fradkov said the solution should be transparent, understandable and corresponding to the spirit of intensive and closest cooperation.

"Unfortunately, something has gone wrong of late. As a result the Russian image of a reliable supplier of energy resources was damaged," Fradkov said commenting on the disruption of Russian oil supplies to Europe via Belarus after Minsk imposed a 45-dollar transit duty on each ton of Russian oil pumped to the West.

The oil flow via Belarus resumed late on Wednesday as Belarus revised its decision after a telephone conversation between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, who instructed their governments to resolve the problem by Friday.

"We have to resolve it with maximum responsibility, to find a balanced decision that would be clear to everyone and which would ensure the interests of our countries. It has to be truly transparent and proceed from the necessity of continued interaction with a maximum effect for the development of economies of our countries and of all the obligations, which we have", Fradkov said.

Source:

http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11149321&PageNum=0