BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/12/2008

Belarus may make offer on Georgia regions: paper

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Belarus may tell Russia it will recognize Georgia's rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations in return for moderate prices for Russian gas supplies in 2009, a Russian newspaper reported on Monday.

The Kommersant business daily said before talks between the Russian and Belarusian presidents that Minsk could offer to sell Russia a stake in its state gas transit firm Beltransgaz to secure a deal over the gas price and obtain a rouble loan from Moscow to help Belarus weather the global financial crisis.

Russia drew international condemnation when it recognized Georgia's separatist regions as independent nations after its brief war with Georgia in August following Tbilisi's attempt to retake South Ossetia by force.

Lukashenko has stopped short of recognizing the regions' independence, saying parliament would examine the issue. Parliament has taken no action.

"The president of Belarus indeed has something to offer his Russian counterpart both in political and economic aspects," Kommersant quoted unnamed sources as saying before talks scheduled on Monday between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"Alexander Lukashenko said in early autumn that this would be done by a newly elected Belarusian parliament...But two and a half months after the parliamentary elections (in Belarus), he has not yet made good on the promise."

Belarusian officials had said they were counting on a price of $160 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian natural gas in 2009 compared with the current rate of $128. Russian officials have suggested the price will be no less than $200.

Ethnically close and deeply integrated economically, Russia and Belarus have agreed to create a "union state," but the plan has made little progress.

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Timothy Heritage)

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Oil/idUSTRE4BL0L420081222

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