RUSSIA, GEORGIA AND ABKHAZIA TO DISCUSS ABKHAZIAN REFUGEES' PROBLEM IN LATE APRIL

MOSCOW, April 6, 2004 (RIA Novosti) - A meeting of the working group on refugees from Abkhazia (a self-proclaimed republic within Georgia) with the participation of the Russian, Georgian and Abkhazian sides is due to be held in late April in Moscow. RIA Novosti was told about this in the information and press department of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

The initiative on holding such a meeting which was advanced by Russia within the framework of the Sochi accords of March 2003 was supported at the working consultations held on April 5-6 in the Russian Foreign Ministry with deputy foreign minister of Georgia Mirab Antadze.

(As a result of the inter-ethnic clashes in the early 1990s dozens of ethnic Georgians earlier residing in this former Georgian autonomy were forced to leave Abkhazia.) During the consultations the sides also exchanged opinions on drafting a framework Russian-Georgian treaty on the fundamentals of friendly relations, as well as on resumption of bilateral talks on military issues.

The working consultations were aimed at the implementation of the results of the Moscow meeting of the presidents of the Russian Federation and Georgia held in February 2004, a spokesman for the foreign ministry's press department said.

Deputy Russian foreign minister Valery Loshchinin and Mirab Antadze had a conversation within the framework of the consultations.