BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

31/12/2006

Belarus first vice-premier arrives in Moscow for gas talks

MOSCOW, December 31 (Itar-Tass) - Belarussian first vice-premier Vladimir Semashko arrived in Moscow on Sunday for talks on Russian gas deliveries in 2007, Itar-Tass learnt from the Belarussian prime minister's press secretary Alexander Timosheko.

An agreement with Belarus on Russian gas deliveries in 2007 has not been signed as yet. "There is no contract for the time being," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told reporters on Sunday.

According to the spokesman, the Gazprom management is ready to continue on Sunday talks with Belarussian colleagues up to midnight and "to sign an agreement even to the Kremlin midnight chimes". However, Belarussian first vice-premier Vladimir Semashko has not come to Moscow up to this time.

"Regrettably," Kupriyanov continued, "last Saturday has not yielded any results at the talks on gas deliveries to Belarus. We continued phone talks and exchanging faxes with our Belarussian colleagues till 01.00. However, we have not reached any result.

"The Belarussian delegation, led by first vice-premier Vladimir Semashko, has not flown to Moscow. Therefore, we had not contract for the next year, as before, despite the fact that conditions, offered by us to Belarus for the next year, are the best in the CIS."

Source:

http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11129600&PageNum=0