Putin urges coordination of post-Soviet WTO bids

Opening an informal summit of the post-Soviet Eurasian Economic Community, Putin said: "It is extremely important for virtually all of us to ensure an information exchange on our plans to join the World Trade Organization, which means our intention to step up integration processes in Eurasec, including the creation of a customs union, should be coordinated with progress at WTO talks."

Kyrgyzstan is the only Eurasec nation already in the World Trade Organization after it joined in 1998. Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan are in negotiations on accession, but Belarus has not started talks with the trade body, RIA Novosti reports.

Russia failed to complete WTO talks with the United States, its main negotiator, in July as it had hoped. It is also pursuing a series of ambitious projects, including Eurasec, to revive economic ties with its former Soviet allies.

A common energy market and customs union have been declared central issues on the agenda of the two-day Eurasec summit, which began late Tuesday.

Eurasec Secretary General Grigory Rapota said earlier the legal base for the customs union, which envisions no duties or taxes for imports or exports on the organization's territory, would probably be completed this year, but that the exact date for establishing the union had not been set.

Apart from harmonizing their customs legislation within Eurasec, its members will also have to bring their legislation in line with WTO requirements if they are to join the organization.

The leaders are also expected to discuss a common energy market as part of a Russian initiative to set up international centers offering nuclear fuel services announced by Putin at the Eurasec summit in St. Petersburg in January.

"We need to create a prototype of such global infrastructure that would enable all concerned parties to have equal access to nuclear energy. I would like to emphasize that non-roliferation requirements have to be reliably observed in the process," Putin said then.

Putin also said Eurasec should step up cooperation with the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which comprises the same countries plus Armenia. And the Eurasec leaders are expected to consider restoring Uzbekistan's membership in the regional security group.

The Central Asian nation withdrew from the CSTO, which is seen by many as a counterbalance to growing NATO influence in the region, in 1999 along with Azerbaijan and Georgia.