FSB HEAD CONCERNED OVER STATE BORDER DELIMITATION IN NORTH CAUCASUS

DERBENT (DAGHESTAN), JANUARY 29 (RIA NOVOSTI) - Delimitation of Russia's state border in the North Caucasian region is to be sped up, FSB (the Russian Security Service) director Nikolai Patrushev told a Thursday conference of the state border commission On Problems of the Russian State Border Build-up in the North Caucasus.

Also, the matter of delimiting the border between Russia and Ukraine in this region is to be settled, he said.

"Normative-legal regulation of the border on the Russian-Georgian and Russian-Azeri sections has not yet been finalized," said the FSB director.

In this connection, problems emerge in guarding the state border, he added.

The efficiency of ending and preventing offences by individuals and legal entity on the state border and in Russia's territorial and inland waters is greatly reduced, Patrushev said.

The incidence of crime in violating the regime of the state border and checkpoints is still high, he said.

Before the end of 2004, changes in and amendments to the normative-legal acts of federation entities of the Southern federal district must be over, the border zone fixed and the border-regime rules set in compliance with the law On the Russian State Border, Partushev said.