BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/09/2007

Lukashenko calls for common energy market in CIS

MINSK, September 22 (Itar-Tass) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called for creating a common energy market in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

"But if the states with advantages want other states to be secondary, this market won't make any difference," he said on Saturday.

Lukashenko believes that some of the CIS states "have differing approaches" in this area for the time being.

"We cannot solve this question even within the framework of the Union with Russia," he complained.

Lukashenko said he had asked the Russian leadership to allow Belarus to produce 10-15 billion cubic meters of gas in Russia. "But we could not come to agreement on this issue either," he added.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11896990&PageNum=0