UKRAINE'S PM, RUSSIAN STATE DUMA SPEAKER CONSIDER RATIFICATION OF AGREEMENT ON SETTING UP COMMON ECONOMIC SPACE OF FOUR COUNTRIES

KIEV, February 25 (RIA Novosti correspondent Yevgeny Alexandrov) - On Wednesday Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and speaker of the State Duma of Russia's Federal Assembly (the lower chamber of the Russian parliament) Boris Gryzlov discussed the questions of establishing a free trade zone within Common Economic Space (CES) of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.

As the press service of the Ukrainian government told RIA Novosti, Yanukovich stressed Ukraine's invariable stand on establishment of a free trade zone as the first stage of formation of the CES. It was also noted that both the Ukrainian and Russian side would create all conditions for synchronized ratification of the Treaties on the Ukrainian-Russian Border and on the joint use of the Azov Sea and Kerch Strait, as well as the Agreement on Formation of the CES.

The sides also noted the necessity of practical actions of Ukraine and Russia in the question of joint production of the An-70 military transport airplane and its promotion onto the markets of third countries.

In the course of the meeting Yanukovich and Gryzlov discussed a number of other questions of economic cooperation between the two countries.

On Wednesday Gryzlov is to meet with president Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and chairman of Verkhovnaya Rada (parliament) Vladimir Litvin, after which he will return to Moscow.