DELEGATION FROM RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT ATTENDS SESSION OF PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF UNION STATE

MOCOW, March 16, 2004. (RIA Novosti) - A Russian parliamentary delegation will attend a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union State of Russia and Belarus in Minsk on Tuesday, a State Duma (Lower House) speaker, Boris Gryzlov, told reporters.

According to him, the main issue at the session will be the 2004 budget of the Union State.

The parliamentarians will also try to resolve a broad range of organizational problems in connection with the new members of the Russian delegation, said Mr. Gryzlov. Commissions will be created and the heads of the new commissions will be named.

The Russian and Belarussian parliamentarians will also discuss "sore points" in relations between the two countries. Mr. Gryzlov pointed out "discussion of these sore points by parliamentarians is the best way to remove them."

He praised the contacts between the parliamentarians of the two countries and said that every new meeting with the Belarus part is "one more brick added to the construction of the Union State."

Mr. Gryzlov said that he plans to meet with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on March 17.